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THE 



Philosophy of Teaching 



ARNOLD TOMPKINS 

AUTHOR OF "THE SCIENCE OF DISCOURSE' 






" I would not creep along the coast, but steer 
Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars " 



&&y 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 

GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 

1894 



■z' 









Copyright, 1891 and 1894 

BY 

ARNOLD TOMPKINS 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 




co:nte]^ts. 



PAGE 

INTRODUCTION vii-xii 

THE TEACHING PROCESS ... 1-35 

Its Nature and Elements 1 

Illustration of the Process 11 

Gain in Lesson Planning 29 

AIM IN TEACHING 36-72 

Diversity or Aims 36 

Aim found in Nature of Life : 42 

As an Inner Process 42 

As an Outer Process 55 

Unification of Aims 63 

METHOD IN TEACHING 73-275 

The Universal Law : 73 

The Two Organic Phases of the Process 75 

The Two Factors in the Process 79 

The Ultimate Ground of Unity 93 

The Ultimate Law of Unity 97 

Specific Phases of the Law 109 

Thinking the Individual 115 

1. As Fixed or Coexistent. — Description 119 



iv CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

(a) By Means of Attributes 120 

(6) By Means of Parts 138 

(c) By Means of Another Individual 143 

2. As Changing, or Successive. — Narration 145 

(a) By Means of Attributes 147 

(6) By Means of Parts 149 

(c) By Means of Another Individual 151 

3. Applications of the Foregoing : (a) In Geography ; 

(b) in Physiology; (c) in History; (d) in Composition; 

(e) in Eeading 153 

Thinking the General 183 

1. Forming the General Notion. — Exposition 185 

(a) Thinking the Content of a Class 187 

(1) Steps and Laws 188 

(2) Educational Value 192 

(6) Thinking the Extent of a Class 194 

(1) Steps and Laws :.' 195 

(2) Educational Value 197 

(c) The Processes Moving in Unity 198 

(d) Exposition of Ideal Truth 203 

2. Applying the General Notion. — Argumentation 214 

(a) The Processes in an Argument 220 

(1) Controlled by Relation of Extent 220 

(a) Deduction 220 

(b) Induction 225 

(c) Identification 230 

(2) Controlled by the Relation of Cause and Effect 231 

(a) A Priori Arguments 235 

(6) A Posteriori Arguments 240 



CONTENTS. V 

PAGE 

The Process as a Complex Whole 246 

The Objective Factor 247 

The Subjective Factor 251 

Problems Solved by the Law 260 

1. Concentration 261 

2. Enriching the Course of Study 261 

3. Correlation of Studies 263 

4. Educational Values 265 

5. Morals in the Public School 267 

6. Religion in the Public School 270 



Note. — As this book first appeared it contained a concluding 
chapter on "School Management," which is now omitted with the 
hope of giving that phase of pedagogics more adequate treatment in a 
separate volume. This volume is strictly confined to the essential 
nature and laws of the teaching process ; reserving for separate treat- 
ment the organized means in making the teaching process effective. 
This organized means — the school — is grounded in, and arises out 
of, the nature and laws of the teaching process ; hence ' ' School 
Management ' ' is the logical sequence of the present treatment ; and 
should be rounded out, as the other hemisphere of the teacher's life, 

from the same central point of view. 

ARNOLD TOMPKINS. 
Chicago, III., May 10, 1894. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The term » philosophy of teaching " places the accent 
on the process of teaching, while the term " philosophy of 
education " emphasizes the system of principles as such, 
The philosophy of education will not be attempted ; the 
theme being restricted to the application of philosophic 
principles to the teaching process. Not that the applica- 
tion of principles is a more worthy object of attention than 
the system of principles themselves, but because I feel 
moved to show how helpful in practice, daily and hourly, 
are the universal principles which philosophy announces. 

I have no sympathy with the sneer at mere theorists — 
those who seek principles for their own sake. What should 
we do without the light they throw upon our pathway ! 
The practical teacher is not always conscious of, and 
thankful for, the great service rendered by the speculative 
philosopher. Universal truth seems so remote from the 
immediate, concrete details of school work that we do not 
suspect its presence and controlling power. Hegel well 
protests against the thought that philosophy deals with 
another world ; asserting its subject to be the concrete 
and ever present facts of life. The practical teacher must 
sooner or later learn that inspiration and guidance through 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

the daily routine of duty must be sought in universal truth ; 
that specific rules and recipes, which seem to be so helpful 
because of their easy and immediate application, are really 
impractical and confusing because they have no germinant 
power and breadth of application ; that his bearings must 
be taken from the fixed stars, and not from the shifting 
scenes and lights of the lower atmosphere. 

The application of universal principles to teaching pre- 
supposes a philosophy of education ; and the existence of 
such a philosophy is not always admitted. Even that 
there is a science of education has been denied ; and for 
stronger reasons may its philosophy be questioned, it 
being a higher generalization of principles. A distin- 
guished writer, in the Educational Review, discusses at 
length the question, "Is there a science of education?" 
and concludes in these words : " To sum all up in a word, 
teaching is an art. Therefore there is indeed no science 
of education." 

That there is not yet a fairly well organized and com- 
plete system of educational principles may be readily 
admitted. But the impossibility of such a science is 
affirmed on the ground that teaching is an art. This 
conclusion, however, taken apart from the reasoning on 
which it is based, does not represent the writer fairly. 
The drift of the article shows him to mean this : There is 
no science whose generalizations will fit the concrete case 
in every act of teaching ; that there are special conditions 
and individual peculiarities that no principle can antici- 
pate. But there is no science of any kind whose general- 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

izations exactly fit the concrete case. The individuals 
brought into scientific system retain their individuality. 
We doubt not that there is a science of vertebrates ; or 
think the science of them the less perfect or the less valu- 
able because each vertebrate has countless characteristics 
which the generalizations must ignore. In fact, it would 
not be a science without such differences. In order to 
have a science, the general fact, or law, must be seen as 
manifesting itself in diversity of individuals. Generaliza- 
tions of science are not abstractions ; but, to be generaliza- 
tions, must retain their hold on the individuals. 

While no other teaching act is just like the one in 
which that individual teacher instructs that individual 
pupil, yet that act has essential marks and common ele- 
ments with every other teaching act. It is the divine 
skill of the born teacher's instinct that seizes the pecul- 
iarity, which seems to annul the law ; yet the. law is 
there, and must also be discerned, or the peculiarity could 
not be known as such. The tact and personal insight of 
the teacher required in every act of teaching is not to 
be guided by the immediate consciousness of general 
principles ; but this does not prove that there is no 
science of teaching, or that such a science is not of 
supreme value, even to the divinely gifted teacher. 

If, in order to be a science, generalizations must be 
made which shall blot out all peculiarities of each teaching- 
act, so that the teacher needs to apply only monotonous 
rules, which require no personal insight into the pecul- 
iarities of the immediate case, then indeed there is no 



X INTRODUCTION. 

science of teaching possible ; then not even desirable. The 
science of teaching must leave room for the individual 
element ; as does, without question, any other science. It 
must ever be remembered that the individual case is not 
wholly peculiar ; that the most essential thing in it is that 
which is found in every other case. The peculiarity may 
be so prominent as to thrust the universal element into the 
background ; but the universal element gives law to the 
act of teaching. The science of education brings diversity 
under law. It must enable the teacher to bring into con- 
sciousness the essential elements of all teaching in every 
particular act of it. 

The philosophy of teaching, as distinguished from the 
science, gives distinct emphasis to the universal element, 
showing its controlling power in all that the teacher does. 
It is the explanation of the teaching process by means of 
universal law. By it the separate acts are brought, not only 
into unity among themselves, which constitutes merely the 
science of teaching, but they are brought into the unity of 
the complete system of means of spiritual growth. Science 
explains a group of phenomena by a principle, or law, oc- 
extensive with the group explained. At least, emphasis is 
given to such a principle. Philosophy explains a group of 
phenomena by some principle, or law, which extends beyond 
the group explained to all other groups. The science of 
grammar brings all sentences into their own unity ; that 
is, into unity among themselves ; while the philosophy of 
grammar brings the unity established by science into the 
unity of the universe. It is this larger unity alone which 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

illumines the whole pathway of the teacher, and yields 
assured guidance to the goal of his labor. 

Dignity of work does not depend on what one does, but 
on being consciously controlled, in the doing, by universal 
law. The teacher who is conscious only of the individual 
process before him, is on the lowest possible plane of un- 
skilled labor ; he is the slave of recipes and devices. As 
by degrees he comes under the controlling power of higher 
and still higher generality of law, he rises from the auto- 
matic action of a mere operative to the plane of rational 
insight and self-direction. The highest plane is that in 
which universal law guides the hand and inspires the heart. 
The whole sky of truth bends over each recitation ; and 
the teacher needs but climb Sinai to receive the divine law. 
All the laws of thought and being pervade the teaching 
process ; all philosophy is back of it. At first, Aristotle, 
Kant, Hegel, and Spencer seem remote from the immediate 
work of the teacher. This remoteness must be .made to 
disappear ; the ends of the earth must be brought together ; 
the universal laws of spiritual life must become native 
atmosphere to the teacher. We harm ourselves and degrade 
our work in holding philosophy to be of another world ; 
that the philosophy of education is one thing, and the prac- 
tice of educating another thing ; that the philosophy of 
education belongs to the professional philosophizer on great 
educational problems, rather than to the day-laborer in the 
vineyard. It is said that philosophy can bake no bread, 
but that she can secure to us God and immortality. This 
ought to be sufficient. But she can bake bread, and must 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

do so or miss God and immortality. To secure heaven she 
must mix with the daily affairs of earth ; and while search- 
ing out God and immortality, must bring counsel and com- 
fort to the day-laborer in the school-room. 



THE TEACHING PEOCESS. 



ITS NATUBE AND ELEMENTS. 

As a basis for discussing the higher unity of the teach- 
ing process, let us bring before the mind the lower unity 
of the process ; the common nature of teaching acts among 
themselves considered — the science of teaching recalled as 
the basis for the philosophy of teaching. 

General Nature. — 1. Teaching is a process, because it 
is a series of steps to the realization of an end ; which end 
is the motive in the series — the beginning of the series. 
The end, as idea, moves forward to realize itself. This 
requires means in producing the steps. Thus we have in 
a process the end, or purpose, to be realized ; the steps 
which lie between the end as idea and the end as objective 
reality ; and the means by which the steps are taken. 
Every teaching process has these organic elements in 
common with every other process. 

2. Teaching is a mental process ; not a mechanical one. 
This ought to go without saying ; but there is a general 
feeling that teaching is the manipulation of mechanical 
means. This feeling is manifested in the current phrases 
used in speaking of method ; as, the topical method, the 
outline method, the diagram method, the laboratory 



2 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

method, the library method, the lecture method, etc. 
Teaching is not the manipulation of external means ; as, 
tapping the bell, calling the roll, making records and 
reports, correcting the wayward, applying forms of drill 
to put knowledge into the mind and fasten it there, and 
the like. Every teaching act, and school work in general, 
has its mechanical phase ; but this is not its essential, its 
vital, one. It is easy to become lost in the formal pro- 
cess ; for it is ever present, and is the obtrusive element. 
The first view of school work is that of a formal external 
process ; and it requires reflection to penetrate through 
the letter which "killeth." to the spirit which "maketh 
alive." 

The consciousness of manipulating machinery instead of 
conducting a spiritual process, an experience of growth on 
the part of the learner, is the main root of all school 
errors, and has its origin in the belief that knowing itself 
is a mechanical process, — a belief that the mind is a 
receptacle, called memory, to hold what is put into it ; and 
that learning is receiving and retaining something foreign 
to the self. The mind being a receptacle, the teacher is, 
by means of contrivance of lever, wheel, and rope, to trans- 
fer some ponderable, external stuff into it. The machinery 
by which this is done becomes the important factor, and 
the manipulation of it the chief process involved ; for 
knowing, as usually conceived, is not a process, and the 
mind is something other than that which it knows. 

It is a long step toward freedom when the teacher 
awakens to the fact that teaching is a spiritual process 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 6 

below the form ; that it is the vital touch of the teacher's 
mind with the mind in which the knowledge is born, and 
not that of external relation of transferring something to 
it manufactured elsewhere than in the mind learning. 
The wind may bear the fecundating pollen to the stigma ; 
but the process of flowering and fruiting is another matter. 
Some phase of the bondage to the formal and mechanical 
has been the object of attack of all educational reformers ; 
and must continue to receive their attention, for each 
generation falls into the bondage anew. Every teacher, 
in learning his art, must strive earnestly from the first to 
live in consciousness of the spiritual movement below the 
form ; and to hold the form as the mere varying surface 
play of that movement. 

3. It has been said that teaching is a mental process, 
in which the mind of the teacher comes in vital touch with 
the mind of the learner. The mind of the teacher moves 
forward in the same line of thought, feeling, and volition 
with the mind of the one taught. The teacher cannot 
produce in the learner a given experience without having 
first produced in himself that experience. If the teacher 
is to cause the pupil to think the position, form, size, cause, 
and effects of the Gulf Stream, the teacher himself must 
think each of these relations while stimulating the pupil 
to think each of them. If patriotism is to be aroused by 
teaching " Barbara Frietchie," the teacher himself must be 
stirred by that feeling while causing the pupil to experi- 
ence it. Thus the two minds are always one in the mental 
steps required to learn an object ; and, also, in the emotion 



4 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

to ho cultivated and the resolution to be strengthened. 
The teacher passes into some act or state of experience, 
and the pupil rises, at the touch of the teacher, into the 
same experience. 

An important inference from the foregoing should be 
noted. It is an old saying that as the teacher so the 
school. The best meaning for this is, that the pupil's 
mind, in the act of learning, becomes like the teacher's 
mind ; it takes on the tone and coloring of the teacher's 
thought. The teacher builds his own thought structure 
into the mind of the pupil; begets him with his own 
purity, strength, and sweep of emotional life ; breathes 
into him the breath of his own ethical nature. The 
teacher may resolve to train to accurate, thorough, and 
methodical habits of thought ; but unless these are habits 
of his own mind his efforts will be unavailing. The stream 
cannot rise higher than its source. If the teacher thinks 
loosely and slovenly he cannot hope to realize anything 
better in the pupil, so far as the teaching goes. The 
narrow pedant and dogmatist can never secure scholarly 
habits and liberal culture. The teacher who has not a 
rich and full range of emotional life can expect nothing 
but a withered soul born of his teaching. The man who 
has not strength and purity of character cannot strengthen 
and purify character. The teacher builds his life into 
that of his pupil ; and it is absolutely essential that 
his life be all that he expects his pupil to become. The 
quality of a teacher's life is a part of his professional 
equipment. 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 5 

Particular Nature. — 1. While the teacher's mind and 
that of the pupil take the same steps in the process of 
teaching and of learning, there must be the essential 
difference which makes the one teaching and the other 
learning. The difference lies here : while the pupil thinks 
the object under consideration, the teacher thinks the 
pupil's process of thinking the object. For example, there 
are a certain number of fixed mental steps necessary on 
the part of the pupil to gain the idea adjective : (1) he 
perceives, (2) imagines, (3) compares and contrasts, (4) 
reasons, and (5) generalizes. The pupil must move 
through these forms of activity, but he is not conscious 
of the movement. His whole conscious effort is expended 
on the object studied. He says, I find this and this and 
this in the object ; not that now I am perceiving, imagin- 
ing, etc. The teacher must be conscious of the process of 
the pupil in knowing the object in the act of producing 
that process ; for how else could he rationally produce it ? 
The difference is between thinking the object and think- 
ing the process of thinking the object. The pupil, in the 
study of geography, is thinking the earth ; but in teach- 
ing geography the teacher must think the pupil's thinking 
of the earth. It folloAvs that the steps of the teacher, 
which are identical with those of the pupil, as before 
explained, must be represented steps ; the knowledge 
must be old knowledge. The teacher has before taken 
the steps in knowing the adjective ; so that in teaching he 
is relieved from any conscious effort in learning it, and 
may put his whole attention to the pupil's process of 



6 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

learning it. This suggests the necessity for the teacher's 
familiarity with the snbject-matter of instruction. 

One phase of a teacher's professional knowledge of a 
subject is obvious from the foregoing. An academic 
knowledge of grammar enables the student to think the 
subject of grammar ; while the teacher's knowledge of 
that subject enables him to think grammar into the pro- 
cesses of the learning mind. As a basis for this the 
teacher must know the subject of grammar and the mind 
learning it ; but the professional aspect of the work 
appears when the teacher resolves grammar into the 
mental processes of the pupil; or, brings the pupil's 
processes into the form of grammar. All professional 
treatment of subject-matter resolves it into the mental 
experience of the learner. 

2. While the pupil and the teacher take the steps 
necessary in learning the object, the series of steps taken 
by the teacher bear the relation of cause to those taken by 
the pupil ; and without external means the teacher cannot 
reproduce his experience in the pupil. There must be 
questions, directions, illustrations, etc., to stimulate the 
pupil's mind to take the step designed by the teacher. If 
the pupil is to infer the cause of the climate in a given 
locality, the means must be adjusted to that mental act. 
The teacher first thinks the steps to be taken in the pupil's 
thought, and then he adjusts the external means to each 
step. Skill in giving directions and in asking questions 
arises out of the readiness with which the teacher, by 
insight and sympathy, finds his way into the mind of the 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 7 

pupil in his effort to learn. Books on questioning avail 
little ; it is the quick and true insight of the teacher into 
the essential movement of the learner's mind that enables 
him to hit on the right turn of question or neat adjustment 
of device. Now, the pupil does not hold the relation of 
this external means to his internal experience ; but this 
the teacher must do. While thinking one of the pupil's 
steps he must think, also, the means by which he may 
cause the pupil to take that step. 

3. Thus far, teaching appears to be the conscious act of 
producing mental experience in the pupil ; and that there 
is in the process two conscious elements, making the act 
complex : consciousness of the experience in the act of 
producing it, and consciousness of the means by which to 
produce it. The third, and last, factor of which the teacher 
is conscious is that of the effect of the experience produced 
on the character of the pupil. In fact, the experience is 
produced because a certain end in life is to be reached. 
The rational teacher says to himself that the pupil's 
spiritual growth requires a given course of experience, and 
then he proceeds to adjust means to secure that experience. 
It is impossible to conceive how one can conduct a process 
without being conscious of the aim in the process. All the 
steps must be brought into the unity of the aim. If to-day 
the teacher is to cause the pupil to think Westminster 
Abbey and to arouse certain emotions by that object, he 
should be able to state how the knowledge, and how such 
thinking and feeling, helps the child to realize the aim of 
life. In planning a lesson it is not enough to say that the 



8 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

purpose is to give a knowledge of the object under considera- 
tion and to cultivate certain faculties ; but it must be made 
clear how such knowledge, with the activities involved, is 
for the ultimate spiritual good of the pupil. The teacher's 
question always is, How can I wield this subject-matter to 
make it educative ? or better, What subject-matter will 
administer unto the child's spiritual necessities, and how 
can it be wielded to make it bear its full effect in the mind 
taught? Every lesson requires the teacher to hold in 
mind the entire compass of the pupil's life ; and seeing 
what must be the outcome of the whole, he brings the 
bit of experience into unity with the life movement as a 
whole. 

If the doctrine be true that man's highest happiness 
comes from consciousness of realizing ideals, it is obvious 
that the teacher can find no true pleasure in his work 
without the consciousness of realizing some end set up in 
the life of the pupil. That teacher is happiest who feels 
that, in the process of teaching, the highest good in life is 
being realized by the one taught. The teacher who seeks 
true pleasure in his work, and hopes to find the reward of 
his labor in the thing done, and who expects to thrill the 
pupil with the joy of spiritual activity and growth, must 
find the secret in the consciousness of realizing the highest 
good of life ; in ministering unto the deepest cravings of 
the soul for truth, beauty, and virtue. 

It thus appears that teaching is a conscious process 
having three organic elements : (1) consciousness of the 
mental experience in the act of producing it, (2) of the 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 9 

means of stimulating the experience in the pupil, and (3) 
of the value, or purpose, of the experience in the unfolding 
life of the pupil. Put in the form of a definition : Teach- 
ing is the conscious process of producing mental experience 
for the purpose of life development ; or, to rid this of its 
tautology, Teaching is the process by which one mind, from 
set purpose, produces the life-unfolding process in another. 

The subjective process above described is not teaching- 
till its counterpart is realized in the objective process of 
the recitation. The triple idea in the mind of the teacher 
realizes itself in the external process with the pupil, having 
the three elements corresponding with those in the sub- 
jective process. The elements, however, are reversed as 
the process held in the mind of the teacher realizes itself 
in the class taught. 

In observing a recitation, the thing noted first in order 
of time, and first as logical condition, is the external means 
employed by the teacher ; such as directions, questions, 
statements, illustrations, etc. The second element in time, 
and in logical relation, is the experience produced ; and 
the last is the good resulting to the learner. But the 
process in the mind of the teacher has a reverse order. 
The good of the child must be first in mind ; then, and not 
before, the experience necessary to that good may be con- 
sidered ; and the experience to be produced necessarily 
precedes in thought the stimulus to that experience. 

True, in practice we do not always follow this logical 
order of thought ; but rather begin with the subject-matter 
to be taught, feeling that it is reading, writing, etc., that 



10 



THE TEACHING PEOCESS. 



we teach, instead of the child. One of the most striking- 
features of FroebePs great work was that of beginning 
with the child ; and, having ascertained its needs, he pro- 
ceeded to the course of mental activity essential to its 
needs ; and then he invented a system of means, the 
kindergarten gifts, by which the educative activity could 
be produced. Had he contributed nothing to educational 
thought and practice but this order of procedure, he would 
be properly called an educational reformer. A great 
reform will have been made when we take our bearings 
from the standpoint of the child, and not from arithmetic, 
geography, etc., as mere subject-matter; as something 
external to the life of the pupil and to be taught for its 
own sake. 

This reversal of the subjective order of thought in the 
mind of the teacher, as it becomes realized in the ex- 
ternal act of the recitation, is showii more clearly by this 
outline : — 

1. Purpose, or felt need of child. 

2. Experience, mental steps, re- 
quired by need. 

3. Means of producing the expe- 
rience, or mental steps. 

4. Means of producing mental 
steps. 

5. Mental steps actually taken by 
child. 

6. Need of child satisfied, or pur- 
pose realized. 



The 

Teaching 

Process. 



Sub- 
jective ^ 
Phase. 



Ob- 
jective ^ 
Phase. 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 11 

The process folds back upon itself ; it is a series which 
returns unto itself, as in any other organic process. The 
first is last and the last is first. The two phases are not 
separate in time, but exist at the same moment — move 
parallel, the subjective as the constant and immediate 
cause of the objective. 

But when one is asked to prepare a lesson on a bit of 
given subject-matter, as, the noun, a river, a battle, he must 
begin with the second element in the process ; because the 
subject-matter is supposed to have been already determined 
upon in the light of some educational end. In this case 
the teacher is first to make out the round of mental activity 
which the given point to be taught is capable of producing. 
With this as a basis, he can state both the educational 
value of the activity produced and the means of producing 
the activity ; and either of these may be stated first, since 
both are directly based on the object to be taught, regarded 
as a mental process. First, then, in the practical work of 
planning a lesson the teacher will analyze the object to be 
taught into the mental processes which constitute it ; and 
then proceed to deduce from that process both the educative 
power and the means of wielding the process to make it 
bear its full value to the learner. This order will, there- 
fore, be followed in the — 

Illustration of the Process. 

Suppose the idea pyramid is to be taught to a primary 
class, say a third-reader grade. This being given as the 
starting point, the first step in planning the lesson is that 



12 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

of analyzing the idea into the mental movement which 
constitutes it. 

The Movement — As a whole. — The mind must form 
this new idea out of the elements of old knowledge. Let 
it be supposed that the knowledge most immediately con- 
nected with the new idea are the ideas solid, fiat surface, 
straight line, triangle, and point. Then the movement as 
a whole is a movement from these ideas to the idea pyra- 
mid. In planning any lesson the teacher must state the 
point from which and the point to which the mind moves 
— hound the movement as a whole. But this is not all ; 
the general character of the movement as a whole must be 
noted. The act as a whole is an act of synthesis ; the 
pupil synthesizes the known elements into the unity of 
the pyramid. 

While there is a fixed relation of the elements consti- 
tuting the pyramid, each individual pyramid which the 
mind may create or observe must have its essential ele- 
ments more or less obscured by individual peculiarities. 
The pupil is to think the diversity as shown by individual 
pyramids into the unity of the single idea pyramid, — a 
movement from the diversity of individuals to the unity 
of a concept. 

Steps in the movement. — The movement towards unity 
must be made along all the threads which bind the indi- 
viduals into unity ; and these are three : first, as the basis 
for the other attributes, the fact that pyramids are solids ; 
second, that they have flat bases bounded by straight 
lines ; and third, that they have triangular sides meeting 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 13 

in a point. A fourth step is required to bind these three 
common attributes into the unity pyramid, and a fifth, to 
infer the purpose in the form. 

First step, leading to the generalization of the attribute 
solid. 

1. Observing the manifold variety of individuals be- 

fore the pupil, and those imagined by him. 

2. Abstracting the attention from many other attri- 

butes and fixing it on the attribute, three dimen- 
sions — solidity. 

3. Comparing and contrasting, finding all the differ- 

ences consistent with the likenesses. 

4. Generalizing the attribute of solidity, — " These 

objects are solids." 
Second step, leading to the generalization of the attri- 
bute, having a flat base bounded by straight lines. 

1. Observing again the diversity of individuals. 

2. Abstracting the attention from all the other attri- 

butes and parts, and fixing it on the base. 

3. Comparing and contrasting bases, finding all the like- 

nesses and the differences consistent with them. 

4. Generalizing the attribute under consideration, — 

"These solids have flat bases bounded by 
straight lines." 
Third step, leading to the generalization of the attribute, 
bounded , by triangles meeting in a point. 

1. Once more, observing the individual pyramids. 

2. Abstracting the attention from all other attributes 

and parts and fixing it on the sides. 



14 THE TEACHING PKOCESS. 

3. Comparing and contrasting to find likenesses, and 

all the differences consistent with them. 

4. Generalizing the common elements in the sides, — 

" These sides are triangles meeting in a point." 
Fourth step, resulting in a synthesis of- the three fore- 
going elements into the unity pyramid, and the formation 
of the definition. 

1. Observing individuals as a whole, the attention not 

directed to any one element. 

2. Comparing and contrasting pyramids 

a. With other known mathematical forms ; as a 
cone, a cube, etc., comparing in the three 
points generalized. 

h. With each other, finding as many differences as 
possible so that essentials only remain. 

c. With forms of nature in which the essential 
elements of the mathematical pyramid are 
greatly obscured, noting the essential and 
the non-essential attributes ; as, in a pile of 
oranges, a hill, a church spire, a paper weight, 
a tent, a tree, etc. 

3. Generalizing all points of likeness, — " These ob- 

jects are solids, having flat bases bounded by 

straight lines, and triangular sides meeting at 

a point." Then, the name pyramid having been 

given, " A pyramid is a solid," etc. 

Fifth step, inferring the unity of all the attributes to 

mean the one attribute of stability ; the purpose of the 

form. This attribute should be applied to historical pyra- 



ITS MATURE AND ELEMENTS. 15 

mids, and to pyramidal objects. With this attribute in 
mind, the pyramid should be transformed by the poetic 
imagination into a spiritual type of a will holding firm 
against the opposing forces of life. Tennyson says of the 
Duke of "Wellington : i; He stood four-square to all the 
winds that blew," i.e.. withstood all the evil influences 
incident to his exalted position. The pupil will easily, 
with proper suggestions, transform himself into a pyra- 
mid, and state instances of how he could withstand this. 
that, and the other force directed against his character ; 
just as the pyramid could withstand the forces striving to 
overturn it. This should be pushed out into the details 
of the pupil's experience until he feels broadly grounded, 
like the pyramid, against whatever would overthrow him ; 
thus making the pyramid not merely an intellectual con- 
cept but a positive force in his ethical life. The best 
moral instruction is not that given by special lessons, but 
that which organizes into the movement of thought in 
every lesson. 

Means in the Movement — As a whole. — Since the 
movement as a whole is that of thinking the diversity of 
individual pyramids into the unity of the idea pyramid, 
and since this movement is based on the observation of 
individuals, a striking diversity of individuals must be 
provided for the lesson, — pyramids of all sorts of mate- 
rial, forms, sizes, and colors ; also forms supplied by the 
imagination. If the forms supplied were all of one mate- 
rial, form, size, and color, the pupil's generalization would 
bring into unity attributes foreign to the idea pyramid ; 



16 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

as, wood, slim, ten inches high, and yellow. The indi- 
viduals must have such differences that each will cancel 
a non-essential attribute in another. For instance, if it is 
not essential that the straight lines bounding the base 
should be equal, some of the pyramids must have bases 
with equal sides and some with unequal. The least num- 
ber of individuals to be supplied will be determined by 
the number of non-essential attributes to be canceled. 
And this must be done not only that unity alone among 
pyramids may remain, but that this unity may be seen in 
all its richness of diversity. The pupil must search for 
the confusing and endless variety of differences consistent 
with the common attributes of the pyramid. The concept 
is a consciousness of differences in unity ; without differ- 
ences there is no concept ; nothing but a mere abstract. 

Suppose now the pupils to be standing around a table 
on which the pyramids are placed ; then the conditions 
for effective observation are completed. While there is 
no option as to the mental act required, the devices may 
vary greatly. The pupils might have remained at their 
desks, and each have been supplied with a proportionate 
part of the pyramids. The position of the class which 
will, under the conditions, secure the most effective ob- 
servation and comparison and contrast determines the 
teacher's choice. This illustrates how the rational use 
of devices rests on the consciousness of the mental ex- 
perience desired. 

Means to the steps in the movement. — To generalization 
of attribute, solid. 



ITS XATUKE AND ELEMENTS. 17 

1. "Point to three dimensions in one of the objects 

before yon." (This done repeatedly, including 
objects of the same form imagined in empty 
space.) 

2. " Take two objects." " Show differences." " Show 

three dimensions in both." (This done repeatedly.) 

3. " What differences are found ? " " What likeness 

in all ? " (Ch.) " Three dimensions ; therefore, 

they are all solids." 

Means, to generalization of attribute, flat base bounded 

by straight lines. 

1. "Touch the base of a solid." (This done re- 

peatedly to fix attention on the base.) 

2. " Apply edge of ruler to the base." (Many times 

by each pupil with different solids.) "Pass 
hand over base." "Look along base." (Both 
repeatedly done.) "Apply bases of one to 
another." (Done often.) (Ch.) "The bases of 
these solids are flat." "Again, apply bases of 
one to another and state differences." (Ch.) 
"They differ in size and shape." "Kind of 
lines, straight or curved, bounding base." (Ch. 
after examining many solids report) "The 
lines bounding the base are straight lines." 
"Take one of the objects and measure each 
edge of the base." (Repeatedly done till in- 
equality in length of sides is noted.) "Take 
two of the objects and tell likeness and differ- 
ence in bases." (Repeatedly done.) 



18 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

3. " What kind of bases have these objects ? " (Ch.) 
' " These objects have flat bases bounded by 
straight lines." 
Means, causing the generalization concerning the sides. 

1. "Point to all the sides of one of the solids ; of 

another/' etc. 

2. "Point out differences between the sides of solids." 

"The likenesses." (These acts repeated fre- 
quently.) 

3. " These solids have what kind of sides ? " 

4. "Take a solid." "Put finger on the point of one 

triangle ; on point of another," etc. (Ch.) " The 
triangles meet in a point." 

5. "Tell what you know about the sides of these 

solids." (Ch.) "The sides of these solids are 
triangles meeting in a point." 
Means, causing the synthesis of the common attributes 
into the unity of the pyramid. 

1. "Tell what is true of all the objects before you." 

(Ch.) "The objects are solids having flat bases 
with straight edges and triangular sides meeting 
in a point." 

2. "These objects are called pyramids." (The word 

pronounced and spelled.) "What is a pyra- 
mid ? " (Ch.) " A pyramid is a solid," etc. 
These means have been stated fully enough and carried 
far enough to illustrate how devices conform to the mental 
movement to be produced. A mechanical teacher uses 
means without a consciousness of their relation to the 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 19 

-activity to be stimulated ; or, rather, the devices are not 
consciously determined by that activity. Skill in giving 
directions, asking questions, and supplying conditions 
depends directly on skill in discerning the phases of mental 
movement required in learning the object under considera- 
tion. The teacher who, in the act of teaching, feels in 
close touch with the pupil's experience in learning, will, 
quick and true as instinct, light upon the hi direction or 
proper turn of question. Therefore, the study of the art 
of questioning and using devices must be based in the 
mental processes of the pupil. 

Educational Value of the Process. — The teaching of 
any lesson should produce an effect on each of the three 
powers of the mind — the intellect, the sensibility, and the 
will. It is a serious mistake to hold that the subject of 
instruction is chiefly intellectual, and that only now and 
then something arises to quicken the emotions and to 
prompt to resolution. The mind is a unit, and the entire 
soul must be addressed in every lesson. The proposition 
in geometry, as well as the poem, should delight the heart 
and prompt to new issues of life. The simple intellectual 
truth, that five and five are ten, is warm with emotion and 
charged with ethical force, when wielded by the efficient 
teacher. 

In teaching the pyramid, the teacher must be conscious 
that he is stirring all the powers of the soul to the end of 
free and virtuous life. The steps as they were out- 
lined suggested only intellectual activity; but these when 
properly stimulated, are interfused with the emotions of 



20 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the learner, which gives to life new impulse and higher 
tendency. The plan of the lesson cannot exhibit the feel- 
ings and tendencies, as it does the intellectual movement ; 
but their presence must be secured through the mental 
steps, and their value noted in stating the educative power 
of a lesson. In stating the value of the lesson on the 
pyramid, it is clear that it must be stated in terms of 
all the powers of the mind. The teacher who stimulates 
only cold thought by means of the pyramid — if such is 
possible — loses at least two-thirds of its value to the 
student. 

1. First, what is the intellectual value of the exercise ? 
As to knoivledge the pupil gains the idea pyramid. But 
what does this mean ? One answer might be, that he is 
expected to know that object ; and that he may be asked 
about it sometime, perchance in the examination ; but the 
true answer is, that this new idea is an organ of knowing 
to aid him in mastering the thought of both the physical 
and moral worlds. The physical world is a world of form, 
and he will, in thinking it, impose upon it his new type of 
form. He will see pyramids in myriads of objects, and 
thus facilitate knowing their forms. And too, it is a type 
in the moral world, as already pointed out. 

As to discipline, accurate, thorough, and methodical 
observation is cultivated. This has its value in every 
phase of the pupil's intellectual life. He lives in a world 
of forms ; and his mastery of them is conditioned on 
thorough and systematic observation. Correct habits of 
observation are essential to full intellectual life ; and in 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 21 

teaching the pyramid, the teacher is to be conscious, by 
that means, of forming those habits which are to be con- 
stant and determining factors in all the pupil's intellectual 
activity. 

But a still more fundamental structure of thought is 
secured through the requirement of thinking the great 
diversity of individual pyramids into the unity of a single 
idea, pyramid. This grasping of the little world of pyra- 
mids into unity is the same activity in kind, but of lower 
degree, which grasps the separate phenomena of the world 
into the unity of the universe ; and this is the ultimate 
problem of the intellect. The intellectual movement in 
this lesson is a type of the fundamental movement in 
gaining any knowledge whatever ; and the teacher who, in 
teaching this lesson, is not conscious of training the mind 
in this fundamental and universal form of activity has not 
risen to the educational point of view from which come 
guidance and inspiration. 

2. While this lesson would generally be considered a 
purely intellectual activity, it should arouse a high state 
of emotion. This would be taken as a matter of course 
in a reading lesson ; or, perhaps, in a history lesson. But 
every activity necessary to grasp an object is accompanied 
by its own inherent emotion — an intellectual delight 
arising from the activity itself. The moment the child 
begins to detect unity amidst the confusion of differences 
among the pyramids, a strong current of pleasure sets in. 
Bain calls it " the flash of agreement." The strength of 
emotion aroused is a fairly true index of the clearness, 



22 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

distinctness, and firmness of the intellectual activity grasp- 
ing the unity of the objects. 

Now, this intellectual feeling awakened by means of 
this object may seem a small matter ; but let it be remem- 
bered that every time an intellectual feeling is awakened 
the pupil becomes the more able to rise above the low level 
of sensuous and sensual pleasure into the purer realm of 
spiritual life ; into the life of pure ideas. Certainly a 
large problem for the teacher is that of loosening the grasp 
of sensuous feeling, and thus giving freedom to the higher 
spiritual life ; and a potent means to this end is the 
awakening of intellectual emotion by means of just such 
lessons as may be given on the pyramid. The teacher 
must so train the pupil that he will find his highest joy in 
the life of thought. To this end, every object must be so 
presented as to make him feel that joy. Is it too much 
to ask of the teacher that he be conscious, in a lesson 
like the foregoing, of the opportunity to substitute pure 
spiritual emotions for enslaving, sensuous feelings ? How 
much it would add to the pleasure of teaching if the 
teacher were, in the act of teaching, conscious of realizing, 
to however small a degree, such a glorious and far-reaching 
result as above described ! 

But this object, as is the case, perhaps, in all others, has 
not had its full effect on the learner until it arouses his 
aesthetic emotion. This feeling is awakened when he finds 
himself reflected in the object ; when he transforms it into 
a type of his own life. So straight, so true, so clean-cut, 
so upward-tending — the very embodiment of character and 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 23 



the asjnration of the soul. He delights in it because it 
mirrors to him his true, ideal self. So fine a sentiment is 
little demanded by this utilitarian age of education ; but 
the soul of the child is pleading for it, and has reasons 
deeper than the utilitarian knows of. I wish this were the 
place to insist more fully on the duty of the teacher to 
awaken aesthetic emotions by every object which the mind 
of the learner touches. The teacher should leave no object 
under consideration as a cold thing of mere thought rela- 
tions ; but should cause the pupil to make it glow by the 
power of his imaginative sentiment. I challenge, any one 
to present a higher, or even a more practical, educational 
effect than the habit and the power of transforming every 
object coining before the attention into something beautiful 
and divinely true. A revelation and an inspiration will 
come to the teacher who will strive earnestly to apply this 
suggestion to the daily lesson, however commonplace and 
matter-of-fact be the object considered. 

3. But how does this lesson appeal to the will? Cer- 
tainly not in a way to cause some definite resolution and 
action, as that proposed by an oration. But there is will 
in the form of life-tendency. The pupil has had an enjoy- 
ment of truth ; and to that extent, has become a truth 
lover, and, therefore, has a tendency to be a truth seeker. 
Have we not the faith that every lesson changes in some 
way the current of life ? Shall the teacher not hold him- 
self responsible in every lesson, for strengthening the 
tendency to seek truth, beauty, and virtue ? In general 
and abstract talk we speak of the character-forming power 



24 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

of education : but so few of us bring ourselves to the 
concrete faitli in the act of teaching the lesson before us. 
We do nor feel that character tendencies are forming 
under our touch. Here the teacher may reach the true 
inspiration point. Inspiration comes in the consciousness 
of realizing ideals. The true teacher has set up an ideal 
of character to be attained in the pupil by his teaching ; 
and when he feels his ideal being realized in his teaching 
act he experiences that elation which always accompanies 
the realization of ideals. The teacher thus finds himself 
in his work, just as the pupil finds himself in the pyramid. 
He thus puts, not simply his time, but his life in his work ; 
can live in it, and not simply by it. 

Tor the sake of clearness and emphasis, before taking 
up the universal element, a more condensed illustration of 
the teaching process may be added. 

Suppose that a first-reader class have learned the word 
boy, and are now to learn its plural, boys. 

The Mental Process. — The p> r ocess as a whole. — The 
nearest related knowledge being that of the spoken words 
boy and boys, and that of the printed word boy, the move- 
ment as a whole is from these ideas to the idea of the 
printed word boys. 

Steps in the process : — 

1. Seeing the word ; 

2. Imagining the meaning back of the form ; 

3. Comparing image with that of the singular form ; 

4. Comparing form with the singular form ; 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 25 

5. Inferring that the power of s makes the difference 
in the images. 
Means in the process : — 

1. Presenting word to the eye on chart or blackboard. 

2. Tell the class the word pointed to is boys. 

(Here the teacher utilizes their knowledge of the idea 
and the spoken word boys.) 

A pupil is asked to show what the word means, and he 
brings two boys to the front. Another is asked to show 
the meaning, and he presents three or four boys. This 
continued until all the boys in the room are presented at 
once ; and, by the same process, the class are pressed till 
they image back of the word all the boys in the town ; in 
the county ; in the state ; in the United States ; in the 
world. Thus they will be made to feel the wonderful 
compass of the word. 

3. The class should now show alternately what the 

word boy and the word boys mean ; and conclude 
with a statement of difference in meaning. 

4. Ask pupils to point to the letters which are alike ; 

to that which is different. 

5. With the word boys before the class, require the 

pupils to form the image. Now erase the letter 
s and require the image. This repeated till 
pupils feel the power of the letter to cause 
the imagination to compass all boys. Now call 
for the change which the letter s makes in the 
word boy, and the conclusions sought will be 
reached. 



26 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Note that while the mental steps are fixed, the means 
nsed may vary. The means here given are only to suggest 
how they must conform to the mental process to be pro- 
duced'. Again, all skillful use of means is conditioned on 
a ready and accurate perception of the mind's movement 
in learning. 

Educational Value of the Process. — Intellectual. — A 
knowledge of the power of the letter s. Not a knowledge 
of the form of the letter simply, although this would be 
secured, if not known before ; but the effect of the letter 
on the word boy. At first this seems to be a small matter ; 
but it is a new organ of knowledge to them. They will 
apply the idea of that power to all other plural forms. It 
is an entering idea into whatever feature of a word varies 
its meaning — into inflection in general. 

As to discipline, accurate observation of words ; and this 
extends to all objects. This may be the first time the 
pupils have looked a word squarely in the face. There is, 
also, the training to put the full and definitely bounded 
idea back of the word. Usually only vague and blurred 
images float before the mind ; so that while the eye is 
trained to see the word definitely, the imagination is 
exercised on the definite image which the word symbol- 
izes. The pupil is thus trained to look through forms to 
meaning ; through the clothes to the man ; below appear- 
ances to realities. The most fundamental and pervasive 
form of mental life is that of reading behind phenomena 
the spiritualities on which they rest ; of looking through 
the physical heavens to the glory of God which they 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 27 

declare. The teacher is not fully prepared to teach this 
lesson until his own mind has been transformed by some 
such process as that required in reading Carlyle's " Sartor 
Besartus," in which Carlyle, by successive removals of 
the outer husk and show of things, discloses the soul 
beneath, — until, "In a word, he has looked fixedly on 
Existence, till, one after the other, its earthly hulls and 
garnitures have all melted away ; and now, to his rapt 
vision, the interior celestial Holy of Holies lies disclosed." 
In teaching the word boys the teacher is stimulating in 
the pupil the same fundamental form of thought, in an 
elementary way, as that required by the highest reach of 
philosophic mind. Would it not be the inspiration of a 
teacher to conduct the little process from this universal 
eminence ? And has the teacher any professional right to 
teach this lesson without being conscious of, at least, some 
of the sky that bends over it? Further, the learning of 
this word affords a good exercise in complex comparison 
and contrast. The pupil must hold two images and two 
forms, while noting likenesses and differences in each. 
This form of activity constantly recurs in all thinking, 
and discipline in it must be an object of constant endeavor 
on the part of the teacher. The training to make definite 
the relation of cause and effect is clearly secured in this 
exercise. 

Emotional. — The emotion cultivated is an intellectual 
one : that arising from the free exercise of the imagina- 
tion, and the delight on discerning the power of the letter. 
While the steps enumerated are intellectual ones, emotion 



28 THE TEACHING PKOCESS. 

necessarily accompanies them. Not one of the steps can 
be taken without yielding a corresponding delight to the 
faculties. The emotion reaches its climax on discerning 
the great power of the letter s, the cause and effect 
relation. This is accompanied by pleasure which the free 
activity of the imagination brings in figuring the compass 
of the idea. Every lesson carries with it its own inherent 
source of pleasure. This lesson would be poorly taught if 
the pupil did not glow with feeling through the process ; 
and the degree in the warmth of feeling would fairly well 
indicate the teacher's skill ; that is, if the pleasure arises 
from the full and free activity in thinking the word, and 
not from some extraneous and illegitimate source. It can- 
not be too often nor too strongly insisted upon that the 
teacher must ever rely on the full, natural, and helpful 
activity of the pupil on the object under discussion for the 
pupil's deepest interest and highest reward ; and not on 
the intrusion of some novel and exciting affair which lies 
outside of the legitimate line of thought. 

Volitional. — This lesson does not necessarily prompt 
to any definite resolution, but it should confer life tendency. 
The pleasure which arises from the experience of truth, 
from the life of thought, will incline the student to truth 
seeking. If the life tendency is the same after the lesson 
as before, the question would arise, Why teach the lesson ? 
The lesson warms to the glow of feeling which is finally to 
be kindled into a flame of passion for truth. The teacher 
is not prepared to teach this lesson until he sees clearly 
and feels fully the universal meaning in the direction of 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 29 

truth and virtue. The lesson is fraught with power for 
good, if the pupil's mind is naturally and fully exercised 
upon the object under consideration; if the whole soul — 
intellect, sensibility, and will — enters into the exercise. To 
substitute intellectual life for sensuous life is a great 
educational problem, and it is quite obvious that this 
lesson may be made a strong force in that direction. 

Gain in Less ox Planning. 

In conclusion, it may be insisted on that, so far as 
possible, all lessons should be prepared as in the foregoing. 
The reader will at once recoil at the thought of the 
immense labor thus imposed. If a teacher has twenty 
lessons per day and tAvo hours must be spent on sketching 
each lesson, there will be but little time left for social 
duties and general reading. But this is no argument 
against the idea of thus preparing the lesson ; for ideals 
must not be put aside because they cannot be realized. If 
so, what then would become of ideals of character ? But 
it can be easily shown that such preparation is the only 
economical use of time ; and that the reward is commen- 
surate with the labor. 

Such preparation inspires the teacher with the lesson ; 
and he approaches the class with delightful anticipations 
of realizing an ideal which strives within him as a result 
of his carefully planned work. He has idealized the 
pupils' experience in gaining the point to be presented ; 
represented to himself how the pupils would think and 
feel in their movement in grasping the thought ; how this 



30 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

and that device would affect their activity ; and thus an 
eagerness arises to see in the real process what has been 
brooded over in idea. Such a teacher approaches the 
recitation flushed with interest ; and, by the law of 
sympathy, the pupils catch the spirit, and teacher and 
pupils fuse together in a glow of interest ; and this insures 
that undivided attention and full activity which marks the 
highest degree of skill in teaching. This alone would 
reward the teacher's effort. It is worth all the common- 
place rules on securing attention and interest. The teacher 
who makes no such study must continue to be the drudge 
instead of becoming the inspired artist. 

Such a preparation of the individual lesson is the only 
sure means of growth in professional knowledge and skill. 
It is easy and customary to read books of pedagogy to no 
avail ; the thought presented is held off at arm's length ; 
it does not become a part of the concrete teaching life. As 
much as we boast of our study of psychology, it has helped 
the teacher but little. It is read, and then placed upon 
the shelf as if it had nothing to do with the real business 
in hand. Now, such a preparation as here insisted on 
would force the teacher to feel that psychology is the very 
breath of life in every teaching act. In the preparation of 
every lesson, the psychology must be kept at the right 
hand. The mental processes constituting the particular 
lesson to be given must be traced out, classified, and 
organized. The psychology of each lesson must be brought 
into consciousness. This solves the problem of interesting 
the teacher in psychology. 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 31 

That this is the only sure approach to real, substantial 
pedagogy appears in this way : Suppose that a teacher 
should make out the mental process of learning, say, the 
noun ; and then another of the adjective, and so on through 
the subject, marking educational values in all cases. At 
this point, let the teacher reflect on all that has been done, 
and generalize all the processes and values into the 
pedagogy of grammar. Would not this method put to 
shame our ordinary talk about methods in teaching gram- 
mar ? Let this work be carried through all the subjects ; 
and then the teacher is prepared to construct a real science 
of education out of concrete experience. There is no other 
way in which this can be done. The notorious contra- 
diction between fine talk on education and cheap practice 
would be canceled. The science of education would then 
have a real concrete meaning ; while the art would be 
stimulated and guided by a consciousness of universal law. 
Let the teacher, therefore, who is ambitious to grow in 
pedagogical theory and art begin with the analysis of the 
individual lesson before him ; and, by a long series of 
careful observations and generalizations, establish higher 
and still higher laws till a highly organized science has 
been reached. Is not this the scientific method, and 
therefore correct ? This would convert the ordinary labor 
of the school-room into a systematic study of pedagogy; 
whereas we usually teach school all day and then at spare 
hours study, as a distinct matter, some book on teaching. 
Work thus done is good ; but how much would it be 
reinforced if each lesson pressed the teacher out into 



32 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

such work from the necessity of penetrating the lesson 
itself ? 

If the foregoing reasons do not justify the great labor 
of lesson planning, it is useless to add others which might 
be given. Before closing, however, it ought to be noted 
that the labor is not so great by far as at first appears. 
Twenty lessons of two hours each requires forty hours' 
work per day. Such is the economy of time in lesson 
planning that a teacher can do the forty hours' work in a 
day, allowing eight hours for sleep. Suppose the lesson 
on the word boys has been prepared as above, and to-morrow 
the word girls occurs, and the next day birds, and then 
follow, as will, many plurals in s. The preparation on 
the first word takes care of all such that follow. And not 
only of words forming their plurals by adding s, but of all 
plural forms. When the words boxes, oxen, men, mice, etc., 
occur, their treatment is the same. Thus the two hours' 
work takes care of the forty. The one preparation includes 
that for all plural forms, with the exception of one step, 
which may here be noted. After the pupil has met with a 
few plurals ending in s he will begin to understand that 
words are made to mean more than one by the addition 
of s. Whether or not the teacher direct this generalization, 
the pupils will be forced to it by the repetition of examples. 
But when a plural in es is met with, after taking the steps 
as noted in the word boys, the pupils will instantly feel a 
check to their hasty generalization. And so with each new 
plural ending, thus forming a tendency to caution in gen- 
eralizing. When the pupils have had a wide experience 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 33 

with plural forms, say for two or three years, they should, 
on the ground of their experience, and not from book testi- 
mony, gather into a system the laws for forming plurals. 
Therefore, with the added step of comparison and contrast, 
and generalization, the lesson prepared on the word boys is 
the preparation for the many lessons to follow, extending 
at intervals through four or five years in the school course. 
And not only the lessons on plural forms ; but on all in- 
flected forms. The mental process to be stimulated in 
teaching the meaning of ie in the word birdie is the same 
as that required to learn plural forms. The preparation 
for teaching prefixes and suffixes is therefore the same as 
that for teaching the word boys. And further, as might 
easily be shown, the same mental movement runs through 
all work in grammar. Of course we should expect the 
fundamental preparation of any lesson to reach in some 
way every other lesson. The teacher who shuns such 
preparation will, in the haphazard way, use vastly more 
time in the same course of work. The only economical 
use of time is to do a thing fundamentally right. 

But it is not gain to the teacher but to the pupil that 
concerns us. Unless the process described economizes his 
time and fosters his growth, no claim can be made for it. 
That it does both for him is obvious on a moment's reflec- 
tion. Suppose, using again the lesson on plural forms, 
that the pupil begins this work of close observation, com- 
parison and contrast, and generalization with plural forms 
as they occur in his first reader, and continues this through 
the third reader. At that time he will have completed 



34 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

what is usually just begun at that point. And note the 
difference in condition of mind between him and the one 
who is put through the elementary grammar on the same 
subject after the orthodox fashion — a week or two of formal 
drill on definitions and examples as given in the book. If 
two classes thus differently drilled should be asked how 
words are made to mean more than one, what would be the 
difference in the mental processes of giving the answer ? 
A pupil in one class will hold his breath and with a dead 
tug of memory reproduce something given him ; while the 
other will enter into his experience of the past four or five 
years, and by an original construction can write out in note- 
book all the forms that have come within his experience. 
This is original work ; while the other accepts on faith 
what some one has given him, and answers by a process of 
mechanical memory and not out of the fullness of his own 
life. Again, if it be asked, Which form is most generally 
used ? which next ? etc., the boy of healthy mind will 
again enter into his past years of experience and can write 
an original statement of " rules and exceptions," while the 
other passively copies what he has been taught. The 
one appeals to the language itself, the only authority, and 
holds himself responsible through his own mental pro- 
cesses for reaching the truth ; while the other appeals to 
authority and shuns all activity and responsibility. It has 
been said that the former process lessens the pupil's 
respect for authority; while the latter will cultivate that 
virtue. But the pupil cannot respect authority till he 
becomes authority himself. Suppose that the pupil who 



ITS NATURE AND ELEMENTS. 35 

has had four years of intimate experience with language 
should, in his fifth year, while writing up the conclusions 
of his own prolonged investigation, be directed to consult 
Harvey or Swinton on the same subject. What would be 
his delight in finding that they had reached the same con- 
clusions as himself ; had pushed the matter a little further 
perhaps, but then they had been at it longer. He would 
at once appreciate from his own experience that those men 
had been patient and careful seekers after truth ; and 
could readily appreciate them as authority, knowing what 
authority means. He would congratulate them on their 
eminent success as investigators in his own line and would 
take them unreservedly into his fellowship, and respect 
them as he does himself. Without self-respect in the 
search of truth there can be no respect for the authority of 
others, 



If the nature of the teaching act is now clear, we are 
prepared to consider the universal laws which control that 
act. Since Means in teaching is grounded in and through 
the Experience of the pupil in realizing the Purpose, the 
philosophy of Means is necessarily involved in that of the 
two other elements of the teaching act, and needs, so far 
as the process of teaching is concerned, no further sepa- 
rate treatment, 



AIM IN TEACHING. 



DIVERSITY OF AIMS. 

The end to be realized is the moving force in every 
process ; hence aim in teaching is logically first to be con- 
sidered. The end as idea in the mind of the teacher 
moves to its realization by means of the process of teach- 
ing. It is both first and last — first as idea and last as 
objective reality. "The first shall be last and the last 
shall be first." There can be no teaching without an 
aim ; no good teaching without a definite, inspiring, and 
worthy aim. 

It means much to say that the teacher must have a 
definite aim in each recitation ; but I wish to insist that 
the conscious aim in each recitation should be a universal 
one. This is the only aim that has in it real potency. 
To have any definite aim, as merely to give the knowledge 
of the height of a mountain range, gives definite and 
organic movement to that particular recitation ; but each 
lesson must be seen as coordinate with every other — must 
be seen in the light of the whole round of the pupil's life. 
Each wave of influence set up in the pupil's life circles out 
to the other shore ; and the teacher must look far out in 



DIVERSITY OF AIMS. 37 

life would he note the true meaning, the full opportunity, 
and fearful responsibility of every teaching act. The 
teacher must know that each lesson has not only its 
limited and specific object in knowledge and discipline, 
but that the real object is life itself. In planning a lesson, 
the teacher must state that a given point of knowledge is 
to be taught and that certain mental faculties are to be 
called forth ; but unless he has traced out the ultimate 
bearing of such knowledge and such activities he has 
no reason for giving the knowledge or stimulating the 
activities. 

This brings us to that most vital question in education 
— the true, or universal, aim in teaching. Xot true 
simply as set over against false, but true in the sense of 
highest and most comprehensive ; that aim which, in its 
realization, carries with it all lower aims. Many and 
diverse are the worthy results which education secures ; 
but there is one end which brings into unity and harmony 
all the others. To seek directly the diversity of lower 
ends dissipates energy and defeats effort. Lower ends 
are most effectively secured by seeking the one true 
and essential end. What then, is this highest good of 
education ? 

Putting aside the false aims of vanity, such as polish 
for the social circle, preparation to hold positions of 
honor and notoriety, and the celebrity which comes from 
the mere display of learning and research, educational 
effort moves in two main and worthy channels : the one 
toward man's physical, the other toward his spiritual, 



38 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

good. Man seeks two ends in life : animal happiness and 
spiritual worthiness. Accordingly, education must serve in 
these two directions. It is the practical set over against 
the culture aim ; physical freedom versus spiritual free- 
dom. 

Of these two purposes in teaching, only an insignificant 
minority award the highest place to spiritual growth, the 
vast majority holding that education is a means to a liveli- 
hood, either in the business or in the professional world. 
While our philosophy of life regards thrift as the greatest 
blessing, our fundamental assumption in education must 
be that it should seek an external good rather than an 
internal condition of soul. Whatever culture is conferred 
through knowledge and discipline is for the sake of the 
industries and professions, and not for the good of the 
soul thus cultured. When the young man contemplates 
leaving home to seek higher education, the current question 
is, " What are you going to make of yourself ? " thinking 
that but one kind of answer is possible, and that in terms 
of a vocation. By the vast majority, education is assumed, 
without question, to be instrumental to "getting on in the 
world," and nothing more. So ingrained is this into our 
habit of thought that intelligent people generally show 
surprise when any other view of the case is suggested. 
Everywhere in conversation, on the street, in the car, in 
the social circle, in associations of teachers, and even 
among scientists, whose professed aim is truth for truth's 
sake, there is implied the utilitarian end as the ground 
of education. Ruskin complains of the same thing in 



DIVERSITY OF AIMS. 39 

England. He says in the many letters lie receives from 
parents asking advice concerning the education of their 
sons and daughters he uniformly finds the thought of 
advancement in life ; of something that will put a better 
coat on the boy's back ; that will enable him to ring with 
confidence the bell at the double-belled doors, and after 
awhile to have a double-belled door of his own. 

Now, all this is easily accounted for. Each nation puts 
into its educational thought what is uppermost in its life. 
Instance China, Athens, Rome. The western world is in 
stern conflict with its physical environment. Hence edu- 
cational forces are en listed in the accumulation of material 
power ; in securing the physical freedom of man. 

It certainly ought not to be urged that physical freedom 
is an unworthy aim in education ; for man's spiritual 
freedom is largely conditioned on his physical freedom. 
But that physical comfort and happiness constitute the 
sole aim, or the highest one, needs to be seriously ques- 
tioned. Eousseau thus emphasizes the other side : " In 
the natural order of things, all men being equal, the com- 
mon vocation to all is the state of manhood ; and whoever 
is well trained for that;, cannot fulfill badly any vocation 
which depends upon it. Whether my pupil be destined 
for the army, the church, or the bar, matters little to me. 
Before he can think of adopting the vocation of his 
parents, nature calls upon him to be a man. How to live 
is the business I wish to teach him. On leaving my hands 
he will not, I admit, be a magistrate, a soldier, or a priest ; 
first of all he will be a man." 



40 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Since education is both a physical and a spiritual good, 
there are two ends to be reached by the same process. 
This cannot be done if the ends are antagonistic ; but may 
be done if one is higher and the other lower, — if one is 
more fundamental, so that, when it is secured, the other 
will be realized in the process. The warfare between 
industrial and cultural education recognizes opposition 
between the ends sought. But there is no such oppo- 
sition ; instead, there is essential harmony. By focussing 
the effort on the fundamental end, the other will be 
effectively secured ; and much more effectively than if the 
lower end be directly sought. If the needs of the soul be 
administered unto, the utilitarian ends of life will be much 
more surely and truly realized than if the latter end be 
sought directly. If, in the act of teaching, the teacher 
holds firmly in consciousness, and is guided by, the 
spiritual growth of the child, the best possible thing will 
be done for a successful career in life. 

We must keep in mind that what is popularly known as 
practical education is the most impracticable. Power to 
think, to adjust the mind to the realities in the world, to 
reach true conclusions from carefully discriminated data ; 
strongly developed and refined sensibilities ; and an ethical 
nature fully aroused — these are in the line of a truly 
practical education. Book-keeping is not the immediate 
nor the fundamental qualification of a clerk ; nor skill in 
measuring corn-bins and in computing interest the first 
necessity of a good farmer. In the eternal fitness of 
things, that which makes a man a man supplies the funda- 



DIVERSITY OF AIMS. 41 

mental necessity for vocations. A clerking man or a 
farming man is not so serviceable as a man clerking or 
a man farming. We rely too much on the immediate 
outfit, and not enough on those powers of mind and heart 
which make the man adequate to varying conditions and 
unexpected situations as they arise. This is the great 
weakness in the present system of preparing for the pro- 
fession of teaching. . Effective service can come only 
from a full-orbed manhood or womanhood enlisted in the 
service — men and women, who, from their enlarged powers 
of mind and heart, can not only contrive the means to meet 
the immediate necessity of instruction, but, from the 
larger range of spiritual life, feel the real needs of the life 
they seek to unfold. 

Whatever the diversity of views as to the purpose of 
teaching, it arises from the diversity of views as to the 
nature and purpose of life. If all had the same views of 
life, there would be unity of aim in teaching. All agree 
that education is to aid in living — to further life's interest ; 
that whatever subject and method of instruction aids most 
in life should be selected. But when asked, What is 
living ? What is life ? the apparent simplicity of the 
problem vanishes. The true and comprehensive aim in 
teaching is found in the nature and purpose of life. 



42 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

% 

AIM FOUND IN NATUBE OF LIFE. 

Whether physical or spiritual, life is change. There 
may be change without life, but there is no life without 
change. The change is a definite course from an idea to 
its realization, analogous to the mechanical changes in 
the world of man's creation. Everything made by man 
exists first in idea, then in objective reality. The Brooklyn 
Bridge was first an idea, and then followed a series of 
changes which brought the idea into the external world of 
reality. Whatever man has brought to pass has moved 
from a subjective idea to an objective one — from the ideal 
to the real. 

There is a similar change in the plant world. The idea, 
or potential oak, is in the acorn. Life in the oak consists 
of a series of changes by which the potential oak becomes 
the actual oak. But the analogy to the mechanical world 
holds no further. The changes from the idea to the object- 
ive reality in the mechanical world are produced by a force 
external to the changing object. External forces and appli- 
ances brought into objective reality the idea Brooklyn 
Bridge. But the force which urges to the realization of 
the oak is in the germ itself. External conditions must 
favor, yet the oak takes an active part in its own real- 
ization. The vital force bursts the acorn, pushes down- 
ward and upward, grappling with the earth beneath, and 
stemming the storm above, until it becomes the strength 
and majesty which were only potential at the outset. The 
grain of corn, pressed by crust and clod, pushes and twists 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 43 

and turns, until it finally wedges through to air and sun- 
light. After a day of seeming dalliance with the summer 
wind, it bends under the wealth of fruit which it was 
destined to produce. The poet thinks that — 

"Every clod feels a stir of might, 

An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 
And groping blindly above it for light, 
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers." 

This self-urgency in the plant is unknown in the mechan- 
ical world. While in both there is change from the idea 
to its realization, yet the force in a mechanical change is 
external to that which changes ; while in a vital change 
the force is in the changing object — a blind self-struggle 
for the realization of its innermost nature and true being. 
The same is true of animal life. While to mere vital force 
instinct is added in the animal, for the purpose of the 
illustration, we need note only that the urgency which 
briugs about the changes called life is within the changing 
object : — 

" To-day I saw the dragon-fly 
Come from the wells where he did lie. 
An inner impulse rent the veil 
Of his old husk : from head to tail 
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail." 

The little bird with tired wing lines her nest, and with 
patient purpose sits on her eggs, while the " heart in her 
dumb breast flutters and sings " in the blind faith of 
accomplishing that whereunto she was sent. Ever there 



44 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

is something that urges. The eagle knows not why, but 
he laboriously mounts upward, and frets if chained to 
the low earth to feed on unworthy prey. The wounded 
eaglet — 

"Kests, deep-sorrowing, 
On the low rock beside the stream. 
Up to the oak he looks, 
Looks up to heaven. 
While in his noble eye there gleams a tear." 

Wherever there is plant or animal life there is a force 
that pushes outward and upward, contending with what- 
ever stands between the living object and the realization 
of its true nature. At any given moment a living thing 
has that nature within it which will destroy the present 
state of the object. The object is at war with itself. Its 
present real self is a bondage to its future ideal self. 
Yet the ideal could not rise except upon the ground of 
the real. 

So far as it goes, physical life is a fit type of spiritual 
life ; foreshadows it ; is the prophecy of the higher life. 
Spiritual growth, too, is a series of changes from the ideal 
to its realization ; and, too, the soul has within itself its 
own urgency to self-realization. Spiritual growth is a 
process of development under the innate force of the soul 
itself. As in the physical world, the possible crowds upon 
the real and displaces it with a higher phase of being. 
Spiritual life is a striving, an urgency, to self-realization. 
There is no soul but what is moved by the instinct of its 
destiny; it is its own prophecy and its own fulfillment. 



ATM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 45 

Notwithstanding this fundamental likeness between 
physical and spiritual growth, there is an essential differ- 
ence. The plant and the animal move to their realization 
without plan or purpose of their own. They do not fore- 
see what they are to become ; they cannot distinguish 
between the ideal and the real, by which they are what 
they are. But the soul in the process of growth is con- 
scious of the distinction between the realized and the 
unrealized self. Man can project his possible self in idea ; 
can think of himself as other than he is, which the highest 
forms of animal life give no signs of doing. This makes 
man a self — a person. What a man is to be is an object 
of interest to himself, prompting him to conscious effort 
to reach his highest good. This, and not the fact that he 
binds thoughts together in logical sequence, makes man a 
rational being ; for animals show remarkable skill in 
logical connection. The parrot, in throwing aside a light 
nut, must do so in obedience to a logical syllogism : " Nuts 
that are light are not good for Polly ; this nut is light ; 
therefore, not good for Polly." But we have not the 
slightest evidence that Polly ever sets before herself an 
ideal parrot-hood to be the goal of her endeavor. If so, 
we should have schools for parrots ; for schools are to help 
beings consciously realize some unrealized condition set up 
as an end. Education is conditioned on the fact of self- 
consciousness. If a man could not see himself as other 
than he is — see himself as he ought to be in contrast with 
his present condition — he could not be taught. Through 
self-consciousness man can determine himself ; he is some- 



46 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

thing more than a fated fact among the blind forces of 
nature ; he is free to form his own life, and is to be held 
responsible therefore. Thus it is — 

' ' That men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." 

In thus objectifying the soul to itself, the intellect, the 
objectifying power of the mind, renders its fundamental 
service in spiritual growth. 

Consciousness of an unrealized self as in contrast with 
a present self is the fundamental and universal fact 
of human life. This consciousness has all shades of 
explicitness ; but wherever there is a human soul, there 
is either dimly felt or distinctly grasped some spiritual 
good yet unattained. The dim life of the child is vaguely 
grasping at what it would become ; it may be no more than 
wishing to be big like papa or mamma ; yet it grasps at a 
future good, which is a prophecy of better things. Long- 
fellow says : — 

' ' That even in savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings 
For the good they comprehend not ; 
That the feeble hands and helpless, 
Groping blindly in the darkness, 
Touch God's right hand in that darkness 
And are lifted up and strengthened.'" 

With advancing culture life becomes a definite object to 
the self ; character is definitely and clearly seized ; and 
all effort may be brought to bear on what the soul instinct- 
ively feels to be its highest good. 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 47 

While the vision of a noble character floating before 
the mind is essential to spiritual growth, of itself it will 
not insure that growth. Man must be susceptible to the 
influence of that ideal ; must be drawn irresistibly unto 
it. The emotional nature responds to the ideal which the 
reason sets up. We call it the feeling of worth ; pride 
of character. Contemplating the ideal of life gives rise 
to a feeling of dissatisfaction with the present self — a 
feeling of unworthiness in presence of ideal worthiness. 
Other things equal, the greater the tension felt between 
the real and the ideal, the higher the character. Self- 
satisfaction is the evil of the age. There is little hope 
for him who is contented with his present attainment. A 
noble-minded, high-spirited youth is intoxicated with an 
ideal ; and can find no peace till he is in direct pursuit 
of the highest good. Elated he continually commands 
himself, — 

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 
As the swift seasons roll ! 
Leave thy low vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea ! " 

Man may have clearly before him a noble ideal and 
may be keenly alive to its influence, and yet not mount 
joyously to the stars. He is painfully conscious of a dead 
weight, which he must strive with might and main to 
overcome : — 



48 THE TEACHING PKOCESS. 

" He knows a baseness in his blood, 
At such strange war with something good 
He cannot do the thing he would." 

This requires the vigorous action of the third power 
of the soul, the will. Unless the strong arm of resolution 
reach forth and hold the ideal against every counter interest 
of life, the intellect will have created the ideal in vain, 
and the feeling of worth will be dissipated in air. The 
organic function of the three powers of the soul in the 
life process has now appeared. The intellect objectifies 
the self to the self — creates the character yet to be formed 
and opposes it to the present self ; the emotions respond 
with a feeling of interest in the ideal set up — a feeling 
of unity between the present and the ideal self ; while the 
will actively lays hold on the ideal and brings the present 
self into unity with the ideal set up. The last activity — 
the effort to hold to the true worth of the soul against the 
forces which strive to drag life downward — is the activity 
uppermost in consciousness, and makes life what we im- 
mediately feel it to be, a conscious striving to realize some 
unattained good. 

Life is simple ; it is choosing the ideal worth of the soul 
against every other interest that may clamor for recogni- 
tion. The choice is to be made between two things only: 
the present, real self, and the future, ideal self ; and in 
obedience to the doctrine that, " He that findeth his life 
shall lose it." This contains the whole law. The real 
and true life of the soul can be found only by losing the 
realized self, which always forms a bondage to the ideal 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 49 

to be obtained. Every choice in life is between these two 
selves ; and one must necessarily be sacrificed to the other. 
The law of self-sacrifice means only that the lower self 
must be sacrificed to the higher. The true self is never 
to be sacrificed. 

It thus appears that the law of life is internally given, 
and not externally imposed. It is necessary, during a low 
phase of moral development, to announce laws as if they 
derived their validity from external force and authority. 
" Thou shalt not steal," was, to the children of Israel, 
direct and external authority from heaven ; and the state 
imposes this law on its subjects ; yet every one who has 
risen to self-consciousness is aware that the law issues 
from his own nature. When a man steals a horse, the 
loss of the horse to the owner is a minor matter ; the 
serious thing is the loss of the man who steals the horse. 
It is easy to see how one can afford to lose a horse ; but 
impossible to think that any one can afford to be the thief. 
The rights of property is ground for the state to impose 
laws against dishonest practices; yet a little reflection will 
convince every one that the law has its ultimate sanction 
within the individual on whom the law is imposed. His 
own worthiness forbids in more thundering tones than 
were ever state laws proclaimed, "Thou shalt not kill," 
because in so doing thou murderest thine own soul. The 
citizen rises into civil freedom as he recognizes that public 
laws are subjectively sanctioned ; and that in rendering 
them obedience he is only obeying himself. The righteous 
man is not fretted by external authority, but lives under a 



50 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

law self-imposed. He is more concerned about being just 
to every man than that every man shall be just to him. 
When the young man, warmed with wine, boasts that this 
is a free country, he means only that there are no external 
laws to prevent him doing as he pleases in this chosen line 
of revelry; but he thus shows himself to be the sorriest 
of slaves, being beastly unconscious of, or indifferent to, 
a law within, which imposes the death penalty for high 
crimes against himself. He does not perceive that freedom 
is voluntary force against restraint, rather than the absence 
of restraint ; and that true life is this freedom. 

The life conflict is within the soul itself, and not with 
the horned monster of fable. The love of money may 
occupy against the feeling of the soul's highest good. They 
struggle for possession. Being antagonistic, they cannot 
coexist. This is all : the soul in conflict with its own 
content. It sets itself over against itself, and contends 
with its lower interests for the survival of that which the 
divine-light of reason shows to be in harmony with the 
true self. It is a silent but heroic conflict in the only 
kingdom where man has rule ; a conflict self-imposed by 
a soul resolute to establish its highest claims against the 
appetites, desires, impulses, prejudices, and whatever in 
the lower world contends for sway in the realm of man's 
being. It is truly a struggle of the soul with itself for 
the survival of the best within it. Whatever may be said 
of natural law in the spiritual world, here is a spiritual law 
which has no parallel in the natural world. In the natural 
world, objects struggle with external things only to sur- 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 51 

vive; the fittest do ; and these may be the best. But the 
animal does not struggle to survive because it is fittest 
or best ; while the soul struggles with itself and for the 
survival of the best. When man loses his impulse to such 
a struggle, he crosses the line and becomes an animal ; he 
is spiritually dead. So long as he strives, he is not lost ; 
heaven will at last come to the rescue of his better nature. 

Man struggles with external objects — with nature for 
mastery over its forces ; with his fellow-man in the final 
arbitrament of the sword ; but his real, sublime, heroic, 
life-and-death struggle is in his own subjective kingdom. 
Here is the world's real battle-ground. Here are fought 
the decisive battles — the Gettysburgs and Waterloos. 
Without noise and spectacle, yet here are the deeds of 
heroic valor and of noble self-sacrifice. During the con- 
quest of Mexico, while the vast armies were set in battle, 
two men on the flat top of a high temple were planted in 
mortal combat. At the sublime moment when each was 
trying to dislodge the other from the dizzy height, the 
armies below caught the spectacle, forgot their warfare, 
and watched the issue. In the temple of man's heart is 
such a contest, and, could we behold it, we too would cease 
our warfare of daily duties and business life to watch the 
issue, — whether the soul, stimulated by its own sense of 
worth, will hold against some enemy planted to dislodge 
it from the temple of communion with its Maker. 

Life's ideal heroic struggle is exhibited in its most per- 
fect form in literature. In fact, all literature portrays the 
soul rising from death unto life — from its " dead self to 



52 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

higher things." Bryant's "Water-fowl" exhibits the 
soul rising above the disappointments and perplexities of 
life to the serenity of faith in a guiding Providence. The 
soul is dejected, and this means death. It must rally to 
new life ; and this it does through faith in a guiding Provi- 
dence, as revealed in the "Water-fowl." The hero, Donald 
Grant, in George McDonald's novel, finds his life threatened 
from disappointment in love. He entertains successfully 
the "irrepressible conflict," furnishing a true type of the 
life struggle. Not a struggle with some positive form of sin 

— a disappointment in love, a hard hit stunning his spirit- 
ual being — but requiring the same appeal to his sense of 
manhood in order to gain victory over the tribulations of 
life. Instead of death there was more life and a heavenly 
birth, such as comes to every man who stimulates his pride 
of worth and overcomes in the hour of trial. " The cure 
o' a' ill's nather mair nor less nor mair life," and Donald 
Grant thronged his life pulse with all the noble thoughts 
and sentiments of his past life, and prophecies of the future, 

— all that he had been, all that he hoped to be, — as every 
youth must do who triumphs over the sins and ills of life ; 
and happy will be that youth whose richness and fullness 
of spiritual life will tide him over the shallows and breakers 
of his out-going voyage. 

It was by such means that Ralph, in the "Hoosier 
School-master," fought so well. He had a struggle alone 
and in the dark, • — not a hand-to-hand contest with a 
robber, — our struggles seldom are, — not a struggle in the 
dark with a hair-breadth escape through a trap-door such 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OP LIFE. 53 

as makes the hair bristle, but a real, terrible struggle in 
the dark, whether he should follow the dictates of love or 
live to a higher life. In the wakeful, tedious hours of 
night, he stirs every noble sentiment of the heart to come 
to his rescue, — he thinks of his mother's words, the old 
Bible stories, his youthful aspirations after nobility of 
spirit, the solemn resolutions to be true to his better self, 
the vision of the supreme value of a true character, "the 
memory of a travel-worn Galilean peasant, hungry, sleepy, 
weary, tempted, tried like other men, but having a strange 
divine victory by which everything evil was vanquished 
at his coming." All the angels of memory came flocking 
back to the rescue, and victory crowned the struggle ; and 
not only victory, "but what is better, strength." It was a 
real, awful struggle in the dark for the survival of the 
best. It was the spirit contending with the flesh ; the 
battle that every well endowed person must fight, and the 
victory that every soul must win — the victory of the soul 
over the tribulations of life. 

This again is the typical battle of life ; the soul striving 
under the stimulus of its inherent worth, reinforced by 
the thronging in of every noble thought and sentiment 
that ever thrilled the mind and heart. 

It must not be supposed that man is always wrestling 
with a strangling serpent of sin. He may be free from the 
ordinary forms of passion and appetite ; the evil tempta- 
tions may have no power over him ; yet effort is required 
to rise to the fullest stature of man. He must still strive 
to become more than he is. The youth has not simply to 



54 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

decide to withstand that which attacks him, but must 
energize himself to meet the highest claims life has upon 
him. Life is not merely the absence of wrong doing ; it 
is noble effort. We are not to think that man should be 
never wrong; but that he should be ever nobly right. 
But in whatever form the striving appears, its nature is 
the same ; it is produced by the aspiration of the soul to 
attain to its divinely appointed end, and is carried to a 
successful issue by ever consciously stimulating it by a 
deeper sense of personal worth and reinforcing it by a 
fuller sweep of spiritual life. 

So far, it appears that the true purpose of teaching is to 
make the youth keenly sensitive to the soul's worth and 
to inspire him with a longing for what is truest, best, and 
most beautiful in life ; to make him fully conscious of the 
nature of the struggle which he feels disturbing him, and 
to prepare him for victory by nourishing a " youth sublime 
on the fairy tales of science and the long results of time " ; 
by stirring the mind with large and generous thoughts, and 
the heart with noble, inspiring sentiments ; by opening up 
to him all the great thoroughfares of human thought and 
making him responsive to the world's harmony ; by all 
that gives tone, vigor, and power to life ; by whatever 
makes the even current of life full and strong, that there 
may be an overpowering reinforcement to rally in the hour 
of attack, and angels of memory to strengthen and comfort 
under the cares and burdens of life. 

But the true aim must yet be more fully exhibited by 
viewing — 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 55 

Life as an External Process. 

Life as an inner, conscious striving to realize possibilities 
is impossible without a correlative external process. The 
subjective process carries with it an objective process. 
Man cannot find his life within himself. This is found 
only in touching the thought and spirit of the world 
objective to the self. The individual must come in touch 
with the universal. 

There is an inner vital process in the oak by which 
it realizes itself; but this inner process would not be 
possible were it not for the external process by which the 
tree comes in touch with and takes into itself the substance 
of which its life is built. The internal life processes of 
a bird are supported by answering external activities. Its 
walking, running, flying, searching for food, etc., administer 
unto the internal necessities. All internal vital processes 
are thus supported by activities adjusted to external ends. 
Thus physical life has an inner and an outer process 
organically related, each making possible the other. 

The inner process becomes more complex and involved 
in passing upward into the higher forms of physical life ; 
and the external process becomes correspondingly more 
complex and involved. The inner process of life in the 
oak is very simple when compared with that in the bird ; 
and so likewise is the external process in the one simple 
when compared with that in the other. The oak is fixed 
to one place, and can appropriate only that which impinges 
on its surface. It passively waits on the circulation of air 



56 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

and moisture to bring it nutriment. But the bird actively 
puts under contribution a wide range of territory to sustain 
the necessities of its inner life. The widely extended and 
diversified activity in this case is proportioned to the more 
highly complicated internal activity. The ascending scale 
of physical life is determined by the ever widening circle 
of external activity. The lion can put under contribution 
a vast territory for his physical comfort and necessity, 
while the sponge is fixed to the area of its own body. 
This fact marks the grade of the lion's life over that of 
the sponge. 

In the same way we note man's superiority as an animal. 
While primitive man was as restricted in physical freedom 
as the animal, through the progress of civilization he has 
put the entire globe under contribution for his individual 
comfort and happiness. The elements that once enslaved 
him, he now bids do his service. He can live in all parts 
of the world by modifying the heat of summer and the 
cold of winter, through the adjustment of clothing and 
shelter. He can "make Canada as warm as Calcutta." 
All parts of the world are compelled to feed and clothe 
him. The ocean, which for thousands of years imprisoned 
him, he now forces to be his liberator. He girts the con- 
tinent with iron rails, and loosens the grasp of space and 
time. The lightning which threatens him, he tames and 
sends on trusty missions the world over. He bids the 
uttermost parts of the earth minister unto him, and it is 
done. When the animal or the savage desires some object 
of physical good, he must go and lay hold upon it ; but 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 57 

civilized man, in physical ease and luxury by his fireside, 
commands the multiform blessings of earth, and the North 
and the South, the East and the West, and the lands 
beyond the sea, empty their comforts at his feet. Man's 
external physical life is infinitely more varied, complicated, 
and extended than is that of the lower animals. He has, 
beyond all comparison, the highest degree of physical 
freedom. By the aid of thought, he multiplies his natural 
physical power to overcome the pressure of his material 
environment and wrest it to his service. His locomotive 
power is increased twenty fold, and all fatigue removed. 
Through the invention and application of the manifold 
forms of the lever, the strength of arm by which he 
wrestles with the forces of nature has been surprisingly 
increased in power and variety of application. The voice 
is naturally limited to the range of a few paces ; but by 
means of the telegraph and the telephone he speaks to the 
civilized globe. The microscope and the telescope come 
to the aid of limited vision, and bring to light the miracles 
of hidden worlds. The wonders wrought by labor saving 
machinery in securing man the prime requisites of life — 
food, clothing and shelter — need only be mentioned. 

All this is civilization ; by which is meant the degree 
of physical freedom man has attained through his arts, 
inventions, and industries. 

Civilization is that form of life in which the activities 
of each man is strengthened by the combined activities 
of all. Thus is the miracle wrought. The race is a 
highly organized industrial unit. Each man lives by some 



58 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

specialized labor, and thus ministers to the wants of all ; 
while he in turn is the recipient of every multiplied form 
of comfort arising from the diversified labor of others. 
The civilized world is a network of interdependencies. 
The shoemaker cannot fill an order without giving motion 
to the whole industrial world. Every line of industry 
must wait upon him to meet the necessities of his life 
which he himself cannot administer unto because of his 
own special occupation. The match factory, the iron 
mine, the stone quarry, the farm, the flouring mill, the 
saw mill, the store, the school, the state, the church, and 
so on without limit, are called into service because this 
man is a shoemaker : — 

" Ah ! what a wondrous thing it is 
To note how many wheels of toil 
One thought, one word can set in motion ! 
There's not a ship that sails the ocean, 
But every climate, every soil, 
Must bring its tribute, great or small, 
And help to build the wooden wall." 

This triumph of physical freedom through arts and 
industries carries with it a great deal more than the 
physical freedom which belongs to the animal. Man's 
progress in physical freedom necessitates a substitution of 
intellectual life for physical life ; for every step man takes 
in physical progress is taken through means devised by 
the intellect, — means requiring intensity of intellectual 
life by the impelling necessity of physical freedom, — that 
beautiful necessity which is a blessing in disguise, lifting 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 59 

man up against the dead weight of his life by forcing him 
to think, to feel, and to do. Our highly wrought civiliza- 
tion has come to be what it is under the highest spiritual 
tension of man, and has therefore wrought a higher result 
than was directly intended. Physical freedom is the con- 
scious necessity which is the mother of invention ; and 
this in turn gives increased power and freedom to thought. 
It requires a high degree of abstraction and generalization 
to adjust one's self to the complex relations of industrial 
life ; and no better schooling can be given to the emotions 
and the will than that of being forced to harmonize one's 
self with the varied interests which cooperate for the 
good of the whole. In all of this there is manifested that 
divine economy which brings man to serve a higher end 
than the one immediately impressed on his attention. " All 
the world over, it is necessity that coerces us to the 
acquisition of the best things." 

Unfortunately, however, physical freedom does not serve 
purely the interests of spiritual freedom. We have become 
manacled by that which serves to free us. Our time and 
energy, our spirit and buoyancy, are quite used up in the 
fever of what we call " getting on." To accumulate the 
means of life has become a pleasure, and the means an 
end; so much so that we cannot desist at the point of 
competency and turn our energies to a higher end — growth 
and culture of the soul. The means of life become the end 
of life ; and our faith lays hold of nothing but meat 
and bread ; rain, soil, and sunshine ; trades and traffic ; 
machinery, workshops, and industrial schools. We are on 



60 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

a dead strain to subjugate the powers of nature to purposes 
of individual comfort and happiness. The feverish energy 
to utilize the material forces about us prevents us from 
directing a portion of our time to purposes of spiritual life 
after providing physical sustenance. Civilization fore- 
stalls the ends of culture, and we will have to assert our 
own worth and dignity over that by which we live before 
we can mount into the upper air of light and liberty. 
While we boast of the nineteenth century as the triumph 
over material forces, we must not fail to see that this fact 
carries with it the other, namely, the spiritual absorp- 
tion of the race in material interests. The fundamental 
assumption of American life is that the purpose of man 
is to subdue the physical earth. The infinite possibilities 
of the soul have no place in our plans. Most people act 
on the assumption that physical life is the only life, and 
animal happiness the true end of living. While this is 
not the avowed doctrine, it yet orders our conduct. 
To accumulate material resources and gain that power 
over the world which wealth confers is the end of all 
endeavor. 

The assumption that the purpose of life is the attain- 
ment of physical freedom becomes necessarily the funda- 
mental assumption as to the aim in education. It must 
serve the trades and industries ; especially so in common- 
school education. Everywhere taxes are paid to this end. 
Education must be practical ; a means to physical freedom, 
not to a condition of the soul. This is so obvious that 
surprise is awakened if any other end than the industrial 



AIM FOUND IN NATURE OF LIFE. 61 

one be suggested. But no matter as to the higher end 
now ; physical freedom is a worthy object of pursuit, and 
education a most potent means thereto. The relation of 
the common-school branches to it is quite obvious. It has 
been noted that man realizes his physical freedom through 
the form of industrial life — through the industrial unit 
called the civilized world. If all knowledge of arithmetic 
were at once taken away, the industrial unit is instantly 
broken. The shop and the bank must close ; the train 
must stop ; commercial intercourse becomes impossible ; 
and each man becomes instantly isolated, and, therefore, a 
savage, having to quit his vocation and supply every 
necessity directly by his own hand, receiving nothing from 
the combined effort of the world. If reading and writing 
were taken from us, the industrial network is broken and 
man again is out of touch with the race and must supply 
directly his every single necessity. No wonder we worship 
the three B/s ! Among the educational changes proposed 
no one has ever been so bold as to think of striking out 
these subjects. Their value is felt to bear immediately 
and directly on the struggle for physical sustenance. The 
most illiterate appreciate their power unto physical free- 
dom, if they do not always see their relation to righteous- 
ness. Of all subjects these are the most immediate to our 
every-day necessities ; and hence have the highest value 
placed upon them. 

While not so obvious, the same result would follow if a 
knowledge of geography be removed. The earth is the 
physical basis of the industrial unit. Geography, simply 



62 THE TEACHING PEOCESS. 

as a knowledge of place, makes possible the world-combina- 
tion. The earth, as a physical organism, bears a direct 
relation to the industrial organism. Geography, therefore, 
saves us from being savages, limited to the area which each 
could traverse on foot and to the use of that which each 
could supply with his own hand. Still less obvious is the 
relation of history to the physical struggle ; and this 
accounts for its later appearance in the school course. 
And when it did appear its value was indirectly made out, 
thus : The study of history makes good citizens ; good 
citizens regard the rights of property ; my property is 
essential to my physical well being. Then the way was 
clear. For the same reason, physiology, too, appeared 
late. It came in on the score of health. A knowledge of 
hygienic laws saves from pain and the doctor's bill ; and is 
not this physical freedom ? Neither in this case nor in 
that of history was the life of the soul taken into account. 
Teachers still emphasize most the fact that history makes 
the orderly citizen, and that physiology is a matter of 
hygiene. When drawing is put into the school it is under 
the excuse of its being industrial. What it has to do with 
the growth of the soul does not occur to the tax-payer. 

Thus the common-school branches are fundamental in 
the sense that without them our civilization would be 
impossible. They formulate and preserve the knowledge 
which conditions industrial life. Their bearing on our 
daily bread is felt to be immediate and direct ; and their 
great value is unmistakably discerned. There is no other 
educational sentiment so deeply rooted, and no other so 



UNIFICATION OF AIMS. 63 

universally entertained. Physical comfort and happiness 
is the controlling aim in education ; especially in the 
common-school phase of it. In the preceding pages it was 
urged that spiritual growth is the supreme object of school 
work. Yet none can deny that the school has a great work 
to do in preparing for the struggle of physical life. These 
two great and worthy aims are before us. How to recon- 
cile and unify them is the next problem. 

UNIFICATION OF AIMS. 

The two great channels in which educational effort moves 
are the industrial and the cultural. Man is more conscious 
of the struggle to gain physical sustenance and power than 
of the struggle to realize ideals of character. Thus the 
industrial bearing of education is exalted above its spiritual 
power. The two kinds of education are set opposite as if 
to attain the one were to ignore the other. Common-school 
educatiou is held to be merely instrumental, while the 
college confers liberal culture — liberal because freed from 
the industries and pursued for the good of the soul itself. 
Truth for truth's sake is the fundamental idea of the true 
university ; while truth as a means of gaining a livelihood 
is the burden laid upon the public school. 

No such distinction properly exists. There is one and 
the same supreme aim in both cases, the attainment of 
which carries with it every lower right aim ; and the lower 
ends are most effectively secured by seeking the higher. 
While in the practical world of education there is great 



64 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

tension between these two ideals, in deepest truth there is 
nothing but organic harmony between them. Whatever is 
essential to spiritual growth prepares for industrial life 
and for securing physical freedom. 

We have found a close analogy between physical and 
spiritual life. Physical life requires man to come into 
unity, by some external process, with the physical world 
about him ; and the extent to which he can put under 
contribution that physical world for purposes of individual 
comfort and happiness marks the degree of physical free- 
dom attained. This freedom is secured through the form 
of industrial life, by which the whole world is made into 
a complex unit of interdependencies. This unity is made 
possible by the knowledge formulated and preserved in the 
subjects of the school curriculum. Man's spiritual growth 
is conditioned on coming into unity with the thought and 
spirit of the world about him. His deeper, richer, fuller 
spiritual life depends on the enlargement of his spiritual 
horizon, by transmuting into the substance of his own 
thought the thought of the world into which he is born. 
This spiritual unity is analogous to the physical unity ; 
and man is spiritually free to the extent to which he is one 
in thought, emotion, and purpose with the great thought 
in which he lives and moves and has his being. This 
unity, too, is made possible by pursuing the lines of study 
forming our school curriculum. There are not two classes 
of subjects — culture subjects and practical subjects. 
Whatever is requisite to participation in the physical life 
of the world is also requisite to spiritual participation. 



UNIFICATION OF AIMS. 6& 

But these ends are not coordinate and reversible. It is 
not a matter of indifference which, is set up as the goal ; 
for it will be found that spiritual requirements are 
supreme, and, when met, the lower physical good is 
secured in the process; and more effectively than by 
direct effort. This puts the common school and the 
university on the same plane. Both seek truth for truth's 
sake. Knowledge is its own end in one case as in the 
other. The common school is an institution of liberal 
culture ; and the more thoroughly this end is secured the 
more substantial the equipment for the practical duties of 
life. If geography be so taught as to meet the spiritual 
necessity of the child, the best thing possible has been 
done in the interest of practical education. History best 
takes care of the practical question of citizenship by caus- 
ing the pupil to feel the life of the past throbbing in his 
own ; and this is just what the teacher brings to pass for 
the pupil's sustenance. Beading so taught as to awaken 
ideals in the pupil and to stimulate him to realize them is 
sure to answer best all the practical purposes of that 
subject. Whatever drill in arithmetic is best suited to 
give scope and power to the mathematical faculty, as 
culture itself demands, is exactly in the line of practical 
training. The truth thus vaguely stated must now be made 
to appear definitely through some detailed illustrations. 

It has already been noted that the industrial unit, 
through which man achieves physical freedom, would be 
instantly destroyed were a knowledge of geography oblit- 
erated. The industrial world is a network of vital inter- 



66 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

dependencies encompassing the earth. A knowledge of 
the mathematical and physical earth is absolutely essential 
to the practical operation of the industrial organism. It 
has been noted also that man's spiritual growth is through 
unity with the thought and spirit of the world by which 
he is encompassed. Suppose a wall sky-high built up 
closely about the child's home, so that he cannot unite 
himself with what lies beyond, and the spiritual bondage 
will be tenfold more oppressive than his physical bondage 
resulting from ignorance of the world about him. What 
spiritual illumination, joy, and freedom, if the world could 
instantly burst on the thought of such a prisoner ! — with 
the dizzy whirl of its immensity through space ; with its 
vast forms of land and water, and the mighty forces that 
" heave the hill and break the shore, and evermore make 
and break and work their will"; with its hills, — 

" Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, the vales 
Stretching in pensive quietness between ; 
The venerable woods — rivers that move 
In majesty, and the complaining brooks 
That make the meadows green ; and poured round all, 
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste"; 

and everywhere the joy of murmuring life ; and the teem- 
ing millions of men, " toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing," ever 
striving to ameliorate their present condition, sustained 
and animated by the inextinguishable hope of a better 
day. The world is a thought of God. It is not a dead 
mass of matter any more than the great organ of West- 
minster Abbey is the substance of wood and iron j but like 



UNIFICATION OF AIMS. 67 

the organ, a system of relations and forces — a stupendous 
organism — making melody to the ear trained to listen. 
In studying the earth, the student comes into unity with 
thought which lies beyond himself and is thus enlarged to 
the compass of that thought. The presence of the earth 
in consciousness is the enlargement and fulfillment of life 
to that extent. The pupil craves the living thought which 
is the earth, because this living thought is his other and 
true self. What would man sacrifice to see the earth in 
the fullness of its external features as they would be 
revealed to him, if by some means he could bring himself 
into every nook and corner of it ! and how much more to 
know the secret laws of its organization, its final cause 
and method of operation ! If, without any thought of its 
practical value, the teacher should cast about to find a sub- 
ject to break the spiritual bondage of the child, geography 
would take its place as one of the fundamental branches. 

We have found that without reading all business inter- 
course would be impossible. Without it man instantly 
becomes isolated and a savage ; all past progress in physi- 
cal freedom is of no further avail. But under the same 
conditions, the spiritual unity, through which man grows 
in spiritual freedom, is instantly broken ; and man is at 
once isolated, and his life cannot be enlarged by the 
spirit of the race. By reading man adds to himself the 
present life of humanity ; and not only this, but the life 
of the race through all time. He can infuse his life with 
the thoughts and aspirations of the witty and wise of 
the centuries, He can add to himself Plato and Paul, 



68 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Shakespeare and Emerson, and thus become exalted and 
magnified by the assimilation of each unto himself. With- 
out reading, no vessel could cross the ocean to bring tea 
from China or coffee from Brazil ; but neither could we 
have Homer or Gladstone, Gibbon or Bancroft. Thus 
reading preserves the spiritual unity of the race, as well 
as the industrial ; and thereby makes it possible for man 
to be all that the race has become. 

So each common-school branch might be shown to con- 
dition spiritual freedom in an analogous manner to its bear- 
ing on physical freedom. The common-school branches 
are said to be fundamental because they are obviously and 
absolutely essential to industrial life ; but they might be 
so named for the reason that they absolutely condition 
progress in spiritual life. If there were no practical 
problem of life before us, these so-called instrumental 
branches must yet stand first in our curriculum, because 
they open the way for the mind to move out into the world 
of thought, and are best adapted to train its power. The 
common-school branches are as clearly culture studies 
for the child and youth as are the college studies for 
the mature ; and this both in respect to knowledge and to 
discipline. 

The final truth to be urged is, that if the teacher wield 
the common-school branches to the end of spiritual power 
he will more effectively secure the practical knowledge 
and training for the daily duties of life. For instance, 
suppose the teacher to be presenting the application of 
cubic measure to the measuring of wood, keeping only the 



UNIFICATION OF AIMS. 69 

spiritual good of the pupil in mind. The teacher knows 
that this external world which the pupil is to compass in 
thought is a world of form ; and that the pupil masters 
that form by means of his mathematical imagination. He 
is to develop in him a new power and a new organ of 
thought by which he may grasp the world of form. To 
this end, having fixed the idea cube, he requires the pupil 
to image a row of eight cubes, and then beside this row 
three others. Then above these rows, another series ; and 
so on, till four series are clearly imaged. The pupil's 
imagination is thus trained to impose its new instrument 
of knowing, the cube, on any concrete form ; and is thus 
enabled to that extent to reduce the material world, in 
whatever form it may occur, to its own terms — becomes 
one with it. Let us now suppose that the teacher has so- 
called practical results in mind, and requires the pupil to 
follow the rule of multiplying length, breadth, and thick- 
ness together, and then dividing by 128. As to culture, 
the superiority of the first process is obvious ; and as to 
practical value, it is equally so. If the pupil should 
remember his rule, he is limited to cord wood. The first 
process trains to a form of activity which will enable the 
pupil to throw anything into the cubic form ; not only 
into feet, but into any other unit, as soon as the unit is 
known. This form of activity will reach into the practical 
world further than a hundred rules. A pupil thus trained 
may be dropped down into the practical world anywhere 
and he will fall on his feet every time. There has been a 
uniform complaint that pupils from the public schools 



70 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

could not measure wood, lumber, etc. This is because 
they have been trained simply to measure wood and 
lumber. If the spiritual necessity of the pupil had been 
kept in mind, the wood and lumber question would have 
been effectively disposed of. 

Again, suppose a lesson in factoring, and one of the 
members 480. The mental freedom of the pupil requires 
that he be able to think things under the relation of 
product and factor. He must be given the power to do 
this, that he may enter into the world of thought about 
him. Suppose, with the given number, the teacher 
requires the pupil to make, on the board, a succession of 
divisions, according to the usual formula given for such 
work. This is the practical method; easily learned, and 
performed without effort. Instead of this, suppose the 
teacher, having regard for the faculty of the pupil, should 
require him to resolve the number mentally and instantly ; 
thinking it into 48 tens, and while holding each of these 
composite factors to resolve them, saying, 2, 5, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3. 
This trains to a universal form of mental activity; and 
gives strength of thought by the intensity required. A 
teacher ought to be forbidden by law to require a pupil to 
solve such a problem as the above by the chalk process. 
ISTow it is easy, again, to see that the process here which 
is good for the mind of the pupil is the best for practical 
purposes. The pupil thus trained will solve five to one by 
the other process. 

It is ever thus : the teacher who keeps an eye single to 
the spiritual good of the pupil will most effectively secure 



UNIFICATION OF AIMS. 71 

the practical ends of the subject. The two are not in 
opposition, bnt to secure both, the aim must rest in the 
higher. The teacher who levels his work to the merely 
practical will miss that and all else ; but the teacher who 
seeks the kingdom of heaven will have all things else 
added. It will be worth while for the teacher who is 
interested in this thought, to reduce all of the common- 
school branches to means of spiritual life, and then note 
what a wonderful gain there has been in the interest of 
practical education. But this is asking much, for the 
whole of a professional education is involved in the 
problem of showing the life-giving function of the subjects 
we teach. To be conscious, in the teaching, how the 
means at hand is to reveal to the pupil his possibilities 
and give him a confidence and pride in his own worth ; 
how it is to so inspire him with a longing for truth and 
righteousness that he can have no peace but in their 
pursuit ; how it is to give his life definite current under a 
strong purpose, and a fullness and joy which lift above the 
turmoil of the lower world — to be conscious of these in 
teaching is the triumph of professional knowledge and 
skill. 

In conclusion, then, the true aim of teaching is one with 
the true aim of life ; and each lesson must be presented 
under the conscious purpose of making the most out of 
the life of the one taught. Every lesson in the common 
school should be made a means of liberal culture. The 
soul of the pupil has its own reasons for the activity 
stimulated and the knowledge acquired. We behold the 



72 THE TEACHING PBOCESS. 

rainbow and study its laws, and the reason is in the soul 
itself. The soul has its own reasons for knowing the 
history and structure of the earth, the laws of planetary 
motion, or the development of the human race "in its 
slow and toilsome march across the centuries toward 
freedom." The pupil is taught physiology, and stands in 
wonder at the miracle of organism before him. The know- 
ing of this wonder is its own reason, and needs no excuse 
from practical hygienic laws. Tell the pupil who has 
touched the thought in the human body that physiology is 
studied to gain laws of dietetics and bathing, and he will 
tell you that it is a base insult ; that he knows a spiritual 
good above the bodily welfare. There is no field of 
knowledge but what has immediate and direct relation to 
the soul. Emerson says something like this : " You can- 
not insult the sun, moon, and stars ; they will serve him 
and him only who becomes a high-born caudidate for 
truth." So the teacher must not insult the subjects of 
study by presenting them in any other way than as if to 
high-born candidates of truth. 



METHOD EST TEACHING. 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 

The first of the universal factors, the purpose of teach- 
ing, has been considered to convince the teacher that in 
every lesson he should be conscious of the value of the 
experience produced in terms of the spiritual development 
of the child ; that, for instance, in teaching a lesson in 
geography, the universal spiritual value of the lesson to 
the child should be the conscious guide in all that the 
teacher does; and that thus the utilitarian value of the 
subject will be more fully realized than if directly sought. 
In fact, the industrial end can furnish no guidance in the 
actual process of teaching. The universal value which the 
teacher is to feel, and by which he is to be guided, is in 
the experience produced, and not in something external 
and remote in time and application. The value is 
imminent in the experience itself ; and is here and now 
and always to the pupil. 

It is not sufficient for the teacher to hold vaguely and in 
general terms character as the end of the process ; but the 
character-forming process must be concrete in the teacher's 
experience as he combines with the pupil in the learning 



74 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

act. Teachers quite readily assent to the doctrine of 
forming character as the end of teaching ; and then go 
about their work as if they had been jesting in their 
theory. Intellectual assent to a doctrine is one thing ; to 
make that doctrine real and subjective in one's life is quite 
another. The teacher must feel with his pupils the higher 
life into which they are being born under his touch ; and 
not lose himself under the rubbish of school forms and 
technicalities, and then reappear and proclaim from the 
house-top that education is a power unto righteousness. 
The paralyzing contradiction between the mere assent of 
the intellect and the conviction of the heart must be 
removed so that our teaching life will be the embodiment 
and realization of what we proclaim in abstract theory. 
The argument in respect to the purpose of teaching was 
not made for the purpose of gaining assent to the doctrine 
of the supremacy of the spiritual aim in education, for we 
have been trained to accept that aim ; but rather to 
illustrate the possibility and necessity of making that aim 
a guide and an inspiration in every concrete act of lesson 
hearing. 

We come now to the discussion of the second universal 
element controlling the teaching process — the universal 
method in the process. Method is the way, the process, 
the movement, by which some end set up is realized. The 
teacher forms an ideal of the results to be attained in the 
life of the child, and then the process, or method, of 
realizing the ideal, claims his attention ; i.e., how the 
pupil unfolds his possibilities into actualities. The teacher 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 75 

takes him at a given point in growth and conducts him 
toward his highest destiny. The question is : How does 
the child grow ? How does he move forward in the 
process of self-realization ? 

The Two Organic Phases of the Process. — These are 
the internal process of the mind's own free activity, and 
the external process of identification with external mind, 
or thought, as embodied in the objective world; for the 
external world is thought to the mind that thinks it. The 
mind grows through the process of uniting itself with 
mind embodied in things — the union of the subjective 
with the objective. As the internal process in the plant 
and in the animal require a correlative external process — 
as the external must be assimilated to the internal in 
physical life — so the internal process of mental life 
requires a correlative external process — the external 
objective thought and spirit of the world must be 
assimilated to the internal subjective spirit. The mind is 
free — has realized itself — to the extent to which it has 
identified itself with the thought of the world, and to the 
extent to which it has realized the possibilities of all its 
powers and faculties. The first is knowledge, or objective 
freedom ; the second, discipline, or subjective freedom. 
The one looks inward : the other, outward. The internal 
process resulting in free realization through discipline is 
proportionate to the external process resulting in knowl- 
edge. In fact, the two are only obverse phases of the 
same truth ; and the one resolves itself into the other. 
The broader and the more varied the spiritual horizon, the 



76 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

fuller and richer its subjective consciousness. This state- 
ment includes emotional life as well as intellectual. Sub- 
jectively considered, the emotions are free when all have 
been developed, and each is made pure and strong; and 
objectively, when they are rendered susceptible to the 
touch of the full range of objects known by the free 
intellect. And, too, the will, subjectively, must have full 
and constant control of the conscious life of the individual ; 
and, as to environment, it must be in harmony with 
universal reason. 

The onward movement of the life process must be stated 
in terms of the evolution of man's faculties — intellect 
(perception, memory, imagination, judgment, reason), 
sensibilities, and will. These faculties, as every true 
psychology shows, are not separate and distinct activities, 
but phases, or stages of the self in the ascending order 
toward spiritual freedom. For instance, perception in- 
volves every activity named after it ; and each faculty 
after it involves the activity of all named before. They 
are not different and set over against each other as 
psychologies too often seem to hold ; but each is a higher 
degree of freedom of the activity of the mind. The 
activity of every so-called faculty is at least implicit in 
every other faculty of the mind, whether we call that 
activity perception, memory, imagination, or thinking. 
We name the activity the one or the other of these to 
indicate the conscious element, and, therefore, the stage 
of freedom to which the mind has attained. 

It is obvious that when man has only perceptive activity, 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 77 

i.e., the perceptive element, the conscious one, he is con- 
fined in his spiritual activity to the presence of the 
material world — to the now and the here. He is limited 
by the external world, and has not yet become a limiter ; 
he is conditioned, and cannot condition the world about 
him. He is enslaved by the sense-world, and lives only in 
the carnal mind. He is a sensuous being, and in danger of 
being sensual. As already observed, there is an increasing 
order of freedom in perception through the ascending order 
of the senses. Muscular perception requires the closest 
contact with the object perceived ; touch, less so, yet 
there must be contact. In taste there is less of rigid 
contact with the object ; the object itself is overcome and 
is in a state of dissolution. In perception through smell 
the individual is freed from contact with the object, 
perceiving that which lies beyond himself ; while in hear- 
ing and sight perception extends over vast distances. 
This, by analogy, foreshadows the progress of the mind 
toward freedom in mastering the thought of the external 
world, and of the richer and fuller inner life correlative to 
the external freedom attained. 

With all the freedom possible in mere perception, it 
is yet limited to the presence of the object perceived. 
Memory, in representing an object once present but not 
now so, gives the mind freedom in the real of past time. 
Man may have in mind all the world he has perceived 
without the presence of that world. While memory gives 
us the freedom of past time, imagination explores the 
the future. By it we produce ideas which have never 



78 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

been in past experience, and construct the world which 
lies beyond the reach of perception in space and in time. 
The narrow circle of sense perception is extended in space 
around the earth, to the solar system, and to the system of 
systems; and in time to the remotest past and into the 
boundless future. And by thinking, judging, reasoning, 
man finds the inner law and essence of things ; finds the 
universe, "the law within the law"; finds behind all 
things self-activity, a soul, which is his own, and thus 
comes to the highest sense of spiritual freedom of which 
he is capable. 

Or, put it in another form : The child at first is lost in 
the external, material world; is absorbed in it. It has 
only objective consciousness ; it is not conscious of self ; 
its own individuality and worth are not defined to it. 
This is the phase of pure perception. Then it begins to 
analyze, to dissect, to compare and contrast — to think, to 
reflect — and awakens to the consciousness that he is other 
than the thing he thinks. He finds relations and laws in 
a world other than himself ; and that he has an individu- 
ality, a personality of his own ; that he, too, is a center of 
force — plans, purposes, and executes ; and that he has an 
inextinguishable hope for some good not yet attained. 
Finally, he discerns behind this world which stands over 
against him a self-conscious activity like himself — which 
is himself ; finds himself in everything. The circle is 
now complete. At first he was at one with the external 
world, but unconscious of his own personality and worth ; 
and at last he is one with the world; but is now con- 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 79 

scious, through, a course of reflection, of his own worth and 
his relation of unity with the world about him. In the 
second union his identity is not lost as it was in the first. 
The first unity is through the intuition of sense-perception ; 
the second, through the intuition of reason. Between 
these two intuitions comes the exercise of memorizing, 
imagining, and judging, by which the separation is made 
and the condition for unity prepared. 

The Two Factors in the Process. — These two foregoing 
organic phases of the process are so interfused that the 
discussion of either will involve and exhibit the other. 
They are related as cause and effect, since man realizes 
himself through phases of growth conditioned on the degree 
of unity realized between the self and the world beyond the 
self. Thus the universal problem of method is, how the 
learning mind identifies itself with the objective world to 
the end of growth, — how the subjective becomes one with 
the objective, in the process called knowledge. It ulti- 
mately resolves itself into a question of the nature of 
knowledge — knowledge as an organic process through the 
interaction of subject and object. The process called 
method in teaching is the product of two coordinate factors 
— the mind learning and the thing to be learned. Method 
is a form of mental action, — a form as much determined by 
the objective world as by the subjective. Without either, 
mental life would be impossible ; therefore, both are essen- 
tial and coordinate. In general, the problem of teaching 
is the same as the problem in philosophy — the relation of 
the subjective to the objective. To make this problem 



80 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

strictly professional, the relation considered must be viewed 
in its bearing on the teaching process. Philosophy is the 
most immediate of all studies to the problem of teaching. 

It is a common thought that when a teacher is studying 
psychology he is necessarily pursuing a professional line 
of investigation ; and that when zoology, for instance, is 
considered, the teacher has abandoned professional for 
academic ground. Zoology, physiology, arithmetic, gram- 
mar, etc., are, in their own nature, as strictly professional 
as psychology. None of them are professional unless 
viewed in relation to the teaching process ; and the teach- 
ing process cannot be studied apart from the so-called 
academic studies. 

The learning mind studies animals, and makes for itself 
the science of zoology. The mind here is one term in the 
process ; animals is the other. Zoology is the mental 
formula for the animal kingdom. It exists only in the 
mind that thinks the animal kingdom ; and we call that in 
the mind zoology when the subjective relations conform to 
the objective relations among the animals. Zoology names 
an organic body of knowledge ; and this looks inward to 
the subjective form of thought as much as outward to the 
objective relations among animals. Zoology is in the mind 
as well as in the animal. In fact, on second thought, does 
it not seem more closely identified with the learning mind 
than with the animals learned ? for zoology exists nowhere 
except in the mind that thinks animals after a given mode. 
It is of the mind ; is mind. It requires no strained effort 
to conceive zoology as a form of mental activity in relation 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 81 

to the animal world. What is this form of activity, is the 
problem of method in teaching the animal kingdom. 

The science called physiology is a mental thing, while 
the human body of which it treats is material. The rela- 
tions in the mind corresponding to the relations in the 
body constitute the science of physiology. Physiology is 
the mind's form of activity in tracing the thought in the 
organism of the human body. When physiology is studied 
for the sake of this form of activity the study becomes pro- 
fessional. The physician studies the laws of organic action 
in the body that he may administer unto its welfare ; while 
the teacher desires to know how the mind forms the science 
of physiology in order that he may administer to the wel- 
fare of the mind studying. 

All the subjects of study, as arithmetic, grammar, geog- 
raphy, etc., name forms of mental life in relation to given 
subject-matter. And logic, the generalization of all the 
objective sciences, is the universal form of mental action 
in unity with the objective world ; and, therefore, more 
immediate to the problem of method than is psychology. 

It has been well said that, " the law in the mind and 
the fact in the thing determine the method." The mind 
thinks sentences, plants, the earth ; and how it thinks in 
each case is determined by the laws of mind activity on 
the one hand, and by the nature of each object considered 
on the other. The nature of the earth has something to 
say as to how it shall be thought. The unity of the two 
factors in a mode of thought, in this case, is called gram- 
mar, botany, geography. Could anything be a more direct 



82 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

and legitimate object of pedagogical study than these 
academic branches when viewed as to the mode of thought 
exhibited ? 

Let it be noted that professional study is something 
more than a separate study of each of the two factors in 
the learning process. We often hear of the study of mind 
and the study of subjects as being correlative parts in a 
teacher's preparation ; and the one is called educational 
psychology, and the other the professional study of the 
subject. But, to become professional, this quality must be 
given the form of unity in the process of mind growth. 
Educational psychology concerns itself with the method of 
the mind's growth in the subjects of study ; and the pro- 
fessional study of subjects resolves them into the mind 
processes which they are fitted to stimulate and nourish. 
On the one hand the method of the mind's growth is 
pushed out into its exercise ground of objective mind in 
the form of subjects ; while on the other, the subjects 
are resolved into educative mental processes. Thus the 
teacher of psychology and the teacher of the other subjects 
meet ; and it is difficult to discriminate one from the other. 
The teacher of educational psychology must know the field 
of the mind's activity — that which it is to assimilate unto 
itself in the process of growth — before he can trace the 
process of growth ; and the teacher of subjects must know 
the laws of mind which constitute the subjects before he 
can formulate their educational value in the process of the 
mind's assimilating them. Thus it appears that neither 
psychology nor the so-called academic subjects are in their 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 83 

own nature professional ; but both, become so when viewed 
as a factor in determining the process of learning, and, 
therefore, of teaching. The teacher must think the mind 
to be taught into unity with the subject by which it is 
taught j or, the subject to be taught into unity with the 
mind to which it is taught. 

It is interesting and instructive to note what disposition 
professional schools have made of the two factors in the 
teaching process. The two parts in the teacher's prepara- 
tion — psychology and the academic studies — have been 
recognized ; but not recognized as factors of- the process. 
Psychology was taught as high-school psychology ; and 
the academic subjects were taught to give the teacher more 
knowledge of them than his pupils possessed ; but of the 
same kind. Aside from these, and constituting the strictly 
professional part of the work, the external process of 
instruction in the form of devices was considered, along 
with school organization and management. The study 
of external machinery had first professional recognition. 
Then we began to hear of educational psychology, and 
applied psychology ; suggesting at least a vague feeling 
that there must be a difference between pure psychology 
and the teacher's view of psychology. 

At this stage of professional development in the normal 
school, the academic subjects were held not to be pro- 
fessional, and were taught only to enable the teacher to 
secure license. The teacher posted in them might well 
omit them in his professional investigation. The bulk of 
the work, however, was in these branches ; and the normal 



84 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

school was a high school with a professional attachment 
of psychology, with manipulation of school machinery. 
Presidents of normal schools deplore the humiliating 
necessity of having the common branches in the course, 
and wish for the time when they can be lopped off, making 
their schools in fact what they are in name — professional. 
But these schools must always teach the academic studies ; 
not, however, as academic studies, but as educational 
instruments. The teacher must not only know the subjects 
as such, as a high-school pupil knows them, but must have 
that reflective knowledge of them which results from the 
analysis of his processes as he constructs those subjects. 
To discard this intimate knowledge of the concrete process 
of teaching, which only a most searching analysis of the 
subject can yield, for the history and philosophy of educa- 
tion and general method — method aside from particular 
subject-matter — is to assume that the teacher, in his prep- 
aration, reverses the accepted theory of education, and 
proceeds from the general and abstract to the particular and 
concrete. It is in accordance with the law of all learning 
for the teacher to trace the concrete process of learning 
and teaching in the particular subjects, before making his 
broader generalizations ; such as required by the history and 
philosophy of education and the general laws of method. 

It would be risking much indeed to equip the student 
with educational theory in the abstract and expect him to 
reduce his theory to the concrete working point in each of 
the subjects he is to teach. Nothing is a more common 
characteristic of the teacher than the fact that he has two 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 85 

professional lives, the one practical and the other theo- 
retical ; and the one having no relation to the other. This 
results from an effort to learn the profession by standing 
aloof from the actual educative process as produced by the 
subjects of study, and resting the case in the literature of 
the profession. Such teachers give fair talk with absurd 
practice. If they had risen from an actual experience of 
the educative process, as each of the subjects is peculiarly 
adapted to produce it, to a full realization of the best 
which history and philosophy of education reveal, the 
duality in the teacher's life would be reduced to unity. 
The philosophy of education is a vague abstraction, and 
general method only a formula for routine, unless grounded 
in the nature of education and its processes, which can 
only come by thinking the mind to be taught into the unity 
of the subject by which it is taught. Concrete, conscious 
experience must constitute the material of generalization 
— the material for the philosophy and methodology of the 
process. For such a purpose the academic studies must 
still appear in the normal-school course. We must not 
discard them for the sake of seeming professional. Be- 
cause the academic school puts the student into these 
subjects for the purpose of liberal culture, the normal 
school need not be prevented from putting its students 
into the same subjects in order to reduce those subjects 
to educational instruments. The subject of grammar is 
taught in the public school for whatever end culture may 
require ; in the normal school it is reduced to a conscious 
educational instrument. To this end its innermost consti- 



86 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

tution is explored, and all its processes traced out ; their 
educational value ascertained, and the means of stimu- 
lating the processes fixed upon. All this must be done 
in the grammar ; not out of it. The solution of the 
problem of a strictly professional school, therefore, does 
not come by the simple process of exclusion, but by the 
organic process of inclusion. 

Method is the process of unity between the subjective 
and the objective ; and this unity cannot be found if 
either factor of the process be omitted. But, to solve the 
problem of method, it must be shown how these two factors 
unite in the process of learning. This requires a statement 
of the ground and the law of their union. 

The Ultimate Ground of Unity. — At first it seems 
absurd to speak of the mind identifying itself with the 
object ; as, the tree, the earth, the sky, the state. These 
seem so utterly different from myself that I can never 
become one with them. The world about me seems to 
oppose me ; to exclude me. Subject and object oppose 
each other ; they are mutually exclusive. How can I 
ever become one with the steam engine which I am to 
think ; with the Greek statue ; the English Parliament ; 
the solar system ! Yet if I cannot, in some sense, become 
one with these objects, I cannot think them. To think an 
object is to reduce it to unity with the mind. 

The materialist solves the problem of unity by reducing 
mind to a material principle ; the idealist, by reducing 
the external world to an ideal principle of mind. In 
materialism, the subjective disappears in the external, 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 87 

material world ; in idealism, the external vanishes in the 
subjective. The truth probably lies between ; and the 
two worlds find their unity in reason, or thought, the 
essence both of the thinking mind and the world to be 
thought. The external world is thought in manifesta- 
tion; and this thought is the common element in which 
the learning mind identifies itself with the object to be 
learned. On no other supposition can we think the ex- 
ternal world. The mind cannot think something foreign 
to itself ; something with which it holds no common ele- 
ment. Thought cannot stir itself, and language betrays the 
fact, except in the truth that there is a common element 
between the subjective mind and the objective world. 

On the lowest plane of thought, that of sense-perception, 
and the one in which the difference between subject and 
object is most striking, we unconsciously assume a com- 
munity of life between the self and the object ; as shown 
by the language of sense-perception. When I say that the 
orange is sour, I think I speak of some objective truth in 
the orange ; and I do. A second thought convinces me 
that the word sour names a subjective sensation. What I 
really mean by the word sour is the state of the self. I 
am in a state called sour ; yet I cannot get rid of the con- 
sciousness that there is something in the orange named by 
the word sour. To speak of the bell as shrill is to speak 
in terms of subjective sensation, although it is the purpose 
to speak of an objective truth. If the orange and the bell 
could speak out of their own nature they might deny having 
the qualities which we assume correspond to our sensa- 



88 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

tions ; but we cannot rid ourselves of the consciousness 
that there is here a true unity between subject and object. 

Again, if I affirm that this stone is heavy, I think I am 
speaking true to the fact in the stone ; yet a moment's 
reflection convinces me that I am primarily speaking of 
my muscular tension. The giant, lifting it, would affirm 
in good faith that the stone is light. The difference 
between the weight of two objects can be asserted only 
in terms of muscular tension ; and yet I cannot convince 
myself that the difference in my two tensions has not a 
unity with the difference in the two objects. 

The difference between two objects, thought to be ob- 
jective, is in neither of them. This one is red and that 
blue ; in which is the difference ? There is a change in 
the sensation of the optic nerve from red to blue. This 
change in experience is subjective ; yet it is believed that 
there is a corresponding external change, called difference, 
with which it is in unity. One may say that this pin- 
head is large, believing that the truth he speaks is wholly 
objective. But he has only to change the standard of 
comparison, say to a mountain, to convince himself that 
the same pin-head is extremely small. Are not the large 
and the small in the mind, therefore, and not in the object 
as affirmed by the observer ? Yes ; and yet we cannot 
disbelieve their objective reality. Without reflection, the 
doubt of the external reality could not arise ; on first 
reflection their subjective reality takes the place of the 
objective ; on second reflection it is found that the con- 
sciousness of their reality cannot be displaced. 



THE TJNIVEBSAL LAW. 89 

" To a Transcendentalism Matter lias an existence, but 
only as a Phenomenon ; were we not there, neither would 
it be there ; it is a mere Relation, or rather the result of 
a Relation between our living Souls and the great First 
Cause ; and depends for its apparent qualities on our 
bodily and mental organs ; having itself no intrinsic quali- 
ties ; being, in the common sense of that word, Nothing. 
The tree is green and hard, not of its own natural virtue, 
but simply because my eye and my hand are fashioned so 
as to discern such and such appearances under such and 
such conditions. Nay, as an Idealist might say, even on 
the most popular grounds, must it not be so? Being a 
sentient Being, with eyes a little different, with fingers 
ten times harder than mine ; and to him that Thing which 
I call Tree shall be yellow and soft, as truly as to me it is 
green and hard. Form his Nervous structure in all points 
the reverse of mine, and this same Tree shall not be 
combustible or heat-producing, but dissoluble and cold- 
producing, not high and convex, but deep and concave ; 
shall simply have all properties exactly the reverse of 
those I attribute to it. There is, in fact, says Fichte, no 
Tree there ; but only a Manifestation of power from some- 
thing which is not I. The same is true of material Nature 
at large, of the whole material Universe, with all its move- 
ments, figures, accidents, and qualities ; all are Impressions 
produced on me by something different from me." Thus 
again, when we are conscious that we speak of the objective 
a little reflection proves that our words refer to the sub- 
jective. And further reflection shows that the reality of 



90 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the objective cannot be denied. Carlyle further suggests 
that we do not plunge over precipices and run ourselves 
through with swords by way of recreation, these being 
only phantasms and spectra, and therefore of no conse- 
quence. More than this ; we must assume some common 
relation between the objective and the subjective in order 
to think the objective. To think an object is to bring it 
into terms of unity with the thinker. 

We assume that our idea of number is derived from 
things ; but Pythagoras affirms that things are based on 
number. The theorem that the square of the hypotenuse 
is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides of 
a right-angled triangle is true according to subjective laws 
of thought ; and, too, it may be shown to be true as an 
objective reality. It is said by some one that mathematics 
is based on the assumption that what is ideally true is 
really, externally true. 

The bridge is built according to laws of thought; the 
external reality of these laws is tested in the train's pass- 
ing over in safety. All of the complicated lines and 
figures drawn in geometry by the subjective laws of 
thought may be traced in actual relations in the external 
world. The transformation of an equation in algebra is 
an external transformation in the concrete world. 

The student in physics feels at first that he treads the 
firm earth of objective reality, yet soon he is forced to 
feel that it has an ideal and subjective foundation. The 
molecule of which he has so much to say, is a mental 
necessity j a creation of the imagination. He learns that 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 91 

a body set in motion moves in a straight line and forever. 
A moment's reflection convinces hini that this phenom- 
enon has not taken place and cannot take place, except in 
the subjective laws of thought. Says Huxley: "Matter 
and Force are, as we know them, mere names for certain 
forms of consciousness." But his good faith in the reality 
of matter and force, and that in them were laws akin to 
his own mind, was the indispensable condition to the 
prosecution of his scientific labors. " If we trace all our 
conceptions on the nature of Force to their fountain head, 
we shall find that they are formed on our own conscious- 
ness of Living Effort — of that force which has its source 
in our own vitality, and of that kind of it which can be 
called forth at the bidding of the Will." 1 The reality of 
the external material force can no more be questioned 
than can the internal force called will. If these two 
forces are wholly distinct and incommensurable, all 
thought of the forces in the world is a dream and a 
delusion. The mind's feeling of unity with the forces 
of the world cannot be dispelled ; and on this feeling it 
proceeds in good faith to explain the nature of force and 
formulate its laws. 

In the realm of organic nature, unity is more clearly 
implied. Darwin quite uniformly speaks of adaptation, 
design, mental purpose, in describing the truth in the 
objective world. These words name mental relations in 
the concrete world which are in unity with mental rela- 
tions in the subjective world. The plant and the animal 

1 Argyll in the Reign of Law. 



92 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

are reduced to terms of mind; then the student feels to 
be one with them. They have become a part of his mind ; 
his mind has taken on the form of thought in the plant 
and the animal. To think the animal is to retrace the 
thought embodied in it ; and this assumes a common term 
between the mind and the animal. If there is no thought 
in the human body, we could not think it. This thought in 
it is of the nature of our own thought ; and hence the unity 
which may be established between our own mind and it. 

In general, the laws of our thinking and the laws of 
being are one. This is well illustrated in the history of 
the categories. Aristotle set forth the relations under 
which an object exists. These relations we know as the 
categories of being ; purpose andaneans ; cause and effect ; 
time and place ; whole and part ; substance and attribute ; 
and likeness and difference. Any object exists only by 
virtue of these relations. The tree cannot exist without 
existing in the relation of space and time, whole and part, 
cause and effect, etc. Kant affirms that these categories 
are the subjective laws of thought ; that these are the 
forms by which the mind thinks the objective world ; it 
grasps objects under these relations because these are its 
innate modes of activity. Hegel would say that both are 
correct ; that the laws of thinking and being are one. On 
this assumption only can the mind of the learner identify 
itself with the object to be learned. 

A splendid illustration of this doctrine of unity between 
the thinking mind and the object thought is Spencer's 
System of Philosophy, in which he shows that the law by 



THE TTNTVEESAL LAW. yd 

which all things come into being in the world is the same 
law by which the mind thinks the world of being. From 
this reference the reader can readily supply illustrations 
of the parallel between psychological laws and the laws of 
objective existence. 

In this ground of unity between the self and the ob- 
jective world is discovered the laws of motive in learning, 
in obedience to which means in teaching must be wielded. 
We have seen that the fundamental fact of human spirit 
is a striving of its own impulse to realize itself ; and to 
this end it craves to make its own the world of thought 
which lies beyond it. Man instinctively feels that, beyond 
his own life in the world about him, there is a life akin to 
his own; which must now into his own to satisfy his 
longing for more life. He feels that everything is the 
manifestation of a universal life of which his own life is 
a part ; and that to realize his possibilities he must par- 
ticipate in that universal life. This is the meaning of 
the proverbial curiosity of the child. It strives unceas- 
ingly, by means of all the senses, to get into the life of 
the object. A blind impulse urges it to a good it knows 
not of, — a good through the object which it strives to 
make its own. To know is its own reward ; because in 
knowing there is immediate consciousness of realizing the 
self in the object ; of rising to the higher self, to the 
life and thought in the object. All means are based on 
this innate tendency of the mind to know the external 
world. The highest test of a teacher's skill in the use 
of means is whether he causes the pupil to find his life 



94 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

in the object ; to feel that some craving of the soul is 
gratified and its growth nourished. 

This feeling of unity with the subject under discussion 
is what is known as interest, the most pervasive idea in 
the art of teaching. The word interest (inter and esse) 
means to be between. When a pupil feels that the subject 
before him stands as a means between his present, real 
self and his future, ideal self, he is interested in that 
subject. A teacher who can truly interest pupils in the 
subject has attained maximum skill in the use of means. 
There is a popular notion of interest, however, which does 
not fall under this description ; it is interest for the sake 
of interest, or amusement. The interest must be in the 
thing studied and not in some external contrivance to per- 
suade the pupil to endure the subject being taught. A 
pupil may be induced to strive to excel in grammar 
through the unworthy motive of emulation, without being 
interested because he finds his life in the subject. It is 
one thing to interest a pupil in his per cents, but another 
thing to interest him in his geography. The greatest 
show of interest in school work is not a guarantee of 
interest in the search for knowledge. The teacher may 
have invented extraneous sources of attraction to balance 
a failure to stimulate by the touch of life in the subject. 
Thus it follows that where there is a high degree of interest 
awakened by external devices we may suspect the teaching 
to be dead and formal. 

To hold per cents, or like means, over pupils as an 
inducement or a threat is not only unnecessary, but 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 95 

positively vicious ; for unless the pupil finds gratification 
in the subject itself lie will form no tendency to future 
study ; lie may even form an aversion to it. The teacher 
guides the pupil's study but a short time; but during that 
time he should give the pupil a life-long tendency to 
seek truth. There is no greater evil in education 
than that of deadening the natural appetite for knowl- 
edge ; and this is done by urging through the course 
on external pressure. At the end pupils give a sigh 
of relief, rather than feel a restless longing for truth 
and righteousness. 

Even after proper means have been selected, all diligence 
must be used to keep them from intercepting the pupil's 
thought and prevent it from going direct to the object. 
A map and globe are good things ; but a pupil may never 
see beyond them to the earth. Diagramming a sentence 
may, occasionally, be a convenient means ; but how often 
is it used so that the pupil studies the diagram and not 
the sentence ! Whatever the aids used in picturing a 
battle, they must be so used that the pupil will be a direct 
observer and will feel without hindrance the strife and 
heroism. Not only should he not be thinking on the 
words of the text, but the map of the battlefield must 
disappear for the real field with its woods, hills, ravines, 
and surging armies. The aids of text and cuts in physi- 
ology must disappear, leaving the mind in free contact with 
the organ studied. The distinction between good teach- 
ing and bad is sharply drawn ; in one the means are so 
used as to bring the mind into vital touch with the thought 



96 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

in the object ; in the other, they are so used as to inter- 
cept the free activity on the object. 

The child not only craves to find its life as already 
embodied in things, but is moved to express its life in 
external forms. This is the obverse side of the preceding 
truth ; but it is the same craving for unity with objective 
being. He is an originator, a self -active being, and cannot 
rest till he makes his thought and purpose valid in the 
external world. He rejoices at every opportunity to mani- 
fest his power. Difficulties challenge him to greater effort. 
He is happiest in work when his powers, without useless 
effort, are engaged to their full capacity. Work must 
neither be too difficult nor too easy ; one is as fatal to 
interest as the other. The teacher often destroys interest 
by assigning matter so difficult, or in such an obscure way, 
as to cause useless and vexing effort. The pupil desires 
his labor to bear fruit ; and while w e talk of activity for 
the sake of the discipline, the pupil will still demand a 
satisfaction in the form of objective truth. On the other 
hand, the teacher will as often fail to secure interest by 
assigning work unworthy of his powers, or by giving too 
much assistance. The lesson is often questioned into little 
bits, when it would stimulate a higher degree of self- 
activity for the pupil to work on the matter as a whole 
and discuss it without continual prompting. Independent 
and original research is said to be characteristic of uni- 
versity work ; but is not this the true principle for all 
school work ? for by this means the teacher respects the 
pupil's freedom and self-activity. In the advanced work 



THE UNIVEBSAL LAW. 97 

the pupil is given a longer period of freedom; but the 
principle is the same. A child may reach the end of his 
investigation of a butterfly in ten minutes ; but it is inde- 
pendent and original research to all intents and purposes. 
A pupil in the high school can sometimes work with 
profit for two or three days on an historical problem, 
books and references having been supplied. His self- 
activity is thus challenged, and he will acquire more 
strength than by depending on the teacher to lead his 
thought through the details by countless questions. But 
in whatever way it is done the teacher must respect the 
self-activity of the pupil, to the end that he be both inter- 
ested and made capable of independent work — to the end 
that the teacher become useless to him as soon as possible. 

Thus while the teacher devises means in a given act 
of teaching, on discerning what the mental steps are in 
learning the object, he must recognize and respect, as a 
universal condition of all means, the natural impulse of 
the pupil to do and to know ; and the power of the 
subject, when properly adjusted, to gratify the impulse. 

The Ultimate Law of Unity. — The mind of the learner 
is confronted with the objective world; with this he is 
to identify himself. The possibility of so doing rests on 
a community of nature between the two. The assumption 
is that both the external and the internal worlds are 
worlds of thought, of reason. The external world is idea, 
or thought, manifested. The external world is only the 
larger self of the individual. He is one with it to the 
extent to which he masters its thought. The thought in 



98 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

one is the thought in the other. We come now to suggest 
something of the process by which this is done — the 
process of method in teaching. First in general outline, 
then in specific phases. 

Man first meets the objective world in the form of con- 
crete individual objects present to the senses. At this 
point there seems the widest gulf between the mind and 
the object. That is, it seems so to the reflective mind. 
To the child it is otherwise ; for it loses itself in the 
material world. But to us, the gulf between mind and 
matter seems impassable. And indeed it is so, on the 
material plane. The material, sensuous thing must be 
penetrated to the idea in it. 

Every individual has its reality in a universal truth. 
The individual waves of the sea arise out of the universal 
sea. There must be universal being back of every indi- 
vidual existence ; and this universal being is not a material 
thing. It cannot be found by observation. It is idea, 
thought, reason. 

The individual sewing machine has, as its reality, the 
universal idea sewing machine. The idea sewing machine 
can produce infinitely individual sewing machines. De- 
stroy all the individuals, and the idea will cause them 
to reappear ; showing that the idea is the abiding reality, 
and not the individuals. The reality of a thing never 
appears to the senses ; but the sense-individual embodies 
an idea, a mental something, to which the mind must 
penetrate in learning it. In my walk I come to the Presby- 
terian church, and feel that I have before me a substantial 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 99 

reality. Yet remove the idea of its architect, and it is no 
more than a material substance. Back of the architect's 
idea yet, it has its being in the religious idea of the 
Presbyterians of this city. Their thought created it, and 
supports it. But the Presbyterians of this city are only 
a portion of Presbyterianism. Without Presbyterianism 
there could be no Presbyterians of this, city. So that 
this church has its reality in Presbyterianism in general. 
Presbyterianism in general is only a phase of Protestantism. . 
Without Protestantism there could be no Presbyterianism ; 
without Presbyterianism, no Presbyterianism of this city. 
Hence this church has its reality in Protestantism. Again, 
Protestantism is a phase of Christianity. No Christianity, 
no Protestantism ; no Protestantism, no Presbyterianism ; 
no Presbyterianism, no Presbyterianism in this city. This 
church, therefore, has its reality in Christianity. Chris- 
tianity is grounded in the universal religion of the human 
heart. This is the ultimate reality of this church. With- 
out it the spire would never have pointed heavenward. It 
is one of the myriads of waves tossed out of the sea of 
religious spirit. The mind, in becoming unified with this 
church, must not only identify itself with the architect's 
idea, but must see it as the embodiment of the religious 
spirit and history of the world. The mind of the learner 
in identifying itself with this church looks through the 
individual manifestation to the mind out of which it arose. 
The learner will first meet John Brown's Raid as an 
individual fact, having definite time and place. This Paid 
had its being in the vigorous spirit of freedom arising in 



100 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

behalf of the slave. The history of the anti-slavery senti- 
ment was in that single act. The anti-slavery spirit was 
a phase of the spirit of freedom born in the American 
Revolution. Concord and Lexington, Valley Forge and 
Yorktown were all in John Brown's Raid ; they arose out 
of the same universal sentiment. The history of Europe 
in its struggle for religious and political liberty conditioned 
this Eaid ; even Magna Charta and the Bill of Eights are 
only antecedent forms of it. The universal spirit of Chris- 
tianity, proclaiming the brotherhood of man, is the reality 
of the event under consideration. To read this event aright 
one must read the history of the world into it. Any event 
in history arises out of some idea, or sentiment, which 
multiplies itself in countless forms. To learn an event, 
therefore, is to come in touch with the universal idea on 
which the event rests. In this way all events in history 
become united ; they are all rooted in some fundamental, 
universal phase of human life. To become one with this 
life is to learn history. Then the mind has come into 
unity with the individual object studied. While the object 
remained a mere individual, the unity could not be made. 
To this end the mind must feel its way to a self-active, 
self-conscious power like its own. 

Every individual object reflects the universe. To know 
an object completely is to see the universe in it ; and this 
includes the self. " The curtain beside me, were my ear 
so fine, would whisper of mines and miners, and looms 
and fields of mulberry, and of logwood cutters and camp- 
fires in far-away lands. All these are related to it as it 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 101 

hangs ; and if I knew it well I might feel the draught 
of Uranus in its folds." Yes, and if we knew it well we 
could perceive in it, too, the thought of humanity. The 
physical and spiritual forces of the world resolve them- 
selves into the curtain. 

The student first grasps the Amazon Eiver as an indi- 
vidual object — gives it location, form, and feature. He 
sees it as a magnificent panorama of landscape. Then he 
proceeds to find the reality of the Amazon in the universe 
lying beyond it. He sees the form and contour of South 
America in the river. The winds and the rains form it. 
The Atlantic Ocean is its fountain. The revolution and 
the rotation of the earth help condition it. The sun is 
over it, determining, with other conditions, where it shall 
be and that it shall be the largest river in the world. The 
moon and stars are in its current ; and if we knew it well 
we could hear Uranus in the flow of its waters. The 
reality of the Amazon is in the cosmic forces of the uni- 
verse ; and if the universe is a universe of law and reason, 
this river must have its origin in that law, or reason. All 
physical phenomena resolve themselves into physical forces ; 
and all physical forces resolve themselves into the unity 
of a single force. And force can only be known in terms 
of will ; hence we are compelled to assume an infinite will 
as the origin of all things. When we reach this self-con- 
scious purpose which creates and supports the object, we 
recognize ourselves in it — have made the unity sought. 

The poet best illustrates the unity of the self with the 
individual object through the perception of the universal 



102 THE TEACHING PUOCESS. 

truth embodied in the object. Goethe says that the poet 
calls the individual object to its universal consecration. 
He finds in it a universal law of spiritual life ; and there- 
fore of my life. He reads behind the phenomena of the 
physical world the spiritual world on which it rests. 
Natural history, says Emerson, is for the purpose of super- 
natural history. The physical world serves us best only 
when it reveals the spiritual world. To the poet every 
individual object reveals a spiritual law; and when I have 
seen that law, I have found myself. Bryant, in beholding 
the water-fowl with the physical eye, beheld with the 
spiritual eye the guidance of human life by Divine Provi- 
dence. He felt his own life and the water-fowl's to be 
one. This was a much closer identification than could 
have been made by an ordinary zoological study. The 
poet is one who adjusts "his inward eye to the proper- 
focus with the outward organ." Should not the pupil 
make this adjustment with every object he studies ? As 
we have seen, in the study of the pyramid, the pupil 
should make the object a law of spiritual life unto him- 
self ; his own being must be reflected in it. This is the 
point at which the pupil reaches inspiration and ecstasy 
in learning ; because at this point he realizes something 
of his ideal self. 

Thus the most universal law of method, in unifying the 
self with the objective world, appears to be this : the mind 
first fixes itself on the individual object by means of the 
senses, and then moves outward till the spiritual sense 
discerns the universal truth in which it has its ultimate 



THE UNIVEESAL LAW. 103 

being, returning with the universal truth to the individual 
— from the individual to the universal, and back to the 
individual. We sometimes say that we pass from the 
individual to the general ; but the mind really passes from 
the individual to the individual, through the general, or 
universal. The individual from which the mind starts is 
not the same as that to which it returns ; for it finally 
returns with the truth of the universe in the individual. 
We grasp the individual first by means of the intuition 
of the senses ; and last by the intuition of the reason. 
Between these two the judgment seizes the general as a 
means of reaching the universal. The universal law of 
method in learning may be shown by the following dia- 
gram, representing the subjective and the objective world 
confronting each other : — 

Reason, Intuition. Universal. | 
Subjective -\ Judgment. General. ^Objective 

^Perception ( in ^ r te a r nd )- Individual. J 

Thus the mind first grasps the individual object by 
means of perception or the sensuous imagination. It 
becomes aware of the world of the senses. The individual 
does not exist in its isolation ; but is a center of forces 
which reach beyond it — forces circling wider and wider 
until the ultimate force of the universe is reached. This 
increasing width and power of relations which determine 
the individual must be grasped by the progressive unfold- 
ing of the faculties of the understanding and the reason. 
The individual object is to be given deeper and still deeper 



104 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

significance as rapidly as the unfolding powers of the mind 
permit. The mind, in its unfolding order in any process 
of thought, or in its order of development, parallels the 
relations of the individual in the objective world. The 
individual object has, first, its isolating, its individualizing, 
attributes ; second, relations connecting it with its environ- 
ment ; and, third, the ultimate conditions of its existence. 
Through perception the mind seizes the isolating, indi- 
vidualizing attributes ; through the understanding, the 
relations to the world of objects about it ; and through 
reason, the ultimate conditions of its being. Dr. Harris 
thus speaks of these as phases of knowing : — 

"The first stage of knowing concentrates its attention 
upon the object, the second upon its relations, and the third 
on the necessary and infinite condition of its existence. 
The first stage of knowing belongs to the surface of experi- 
ence, and is very shallow. It regards things as isolated 
and independent of each other. The second stage of 
experience is much deeper, and takes note of the essential 
dependence of things. They are seen to exist only in 
relation to others upon which they depend. This second 
stage of experience discovers unity and unites in discover- 
ing dependence of one upon another. The third stage of 
experience discovers independence and self-relation under- 
lying all dependence and relativity. The infinite, or the 
self-related, underlies the finite and relative, or depend- 
ent." 

The simple, practical truth to be held is this : The pupil 
first seizes the object as an isolated thing, and then thinks 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 105 

into it, as rapidly as his knowledge and nnfolding powers 
permit, progressively wider, and therefore deeper and more 
essential, relations until the ultimate ground of its being 
is reached. In this the pupil does not lose sight of the 
individual. We sometimes speak as if, in the process of 
knowledge, the mind soared away from the individual into 
the upper air of generalizations and abstractions. Gen- 
eralizations and abstractions mean nothing unless concreted 
in the individual. Hypotheses and major premises must 
justify themselves in the court of concrete reality. While 
the individual points outward to the general, the general 
gravitates to the individual. The mind, in learning, must 
rise from the individual to the merely general, and to the 
universal ; but it also must descend from the universal and 
general to the individual. 

If the foregoing is the fundamental law of learning, it 
follows that the fundamental defect in teaching is that of 
presenting the object as a merely isolated individual. Its 
content is not enriched by the multitude of relations which 
connect it with the universe ; and therefore the mind is not 
required to put forth its full round of activities of thought, 
emotion, and volition. An event in history is a thing of 
time and place and picturable features. It is not made to 
throb with the life of the race. In teaching the form of 
the earth, it is left as an empty thing, requiring only, per- 
haps, some external proof. That form is not seen in the 
life of man on the earth ; in his industries and his institu- 
tions. Its direct relation to light and heat on the globe is 
not usually required ; much less its indirect relations to 



106 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

plant and animal life ; and still less its more indirect and 
remote relations to civilization. Or, what is the same 
thing, civilization is not seen in it. The child is not made 
to think to what extent the form of the earth is in his own 
life. The form of the earth passes out into a multitude of 
relations, immediate and remote, direct and indirect, simple 
and complex ; and to be known thoroughly must be seen in 
all these relations ; and these relations must all be seen in 
it. The individual must thus always be made to appear 
in the general, and the general in the individual. This 
does not mean that all the relations must be grasped at the 
time the pupil learns the fact ; but that these relations, in 
their progressive order of remoteness and generality, should 
be grasped as rapidly as the unfolding knowledge and 
powers of the pupil permit. This suggests the principle 
on which a graded course of study must be formed. 

A graded course of study is determined by the degree of 
generality which a given class of pupils can grasp. The 
fact of the earth's form and some of its immediate relations 
may be taught to a primary class. A circle of wider rela- 
tions is fit subject-matter for an intermediate class ; and the 
grammar grade can grasp still wider relations. Still more 
complex and comprehensive relations are adapted to the 
high-school pupil ; and the college student would yet find 
enough to tax his powers to the utmost. A course of study 
is not made by introducing different branches of study for 
different grades ; but by presenting higher and still higher 
phases of the same subject-matter. All subjects in the 
university have their roots in the primary school. The 



THE UNIVERSAL LAW. 10T 

child enters school with something of psychology, astron- 
omy, and politics. The course of study is but the pro- 
gressive unfolding of the subject-matter given at the outset. 
It consists of related lines of thought running through 
from the first year of school to its close — the warp of the 
course ; having equal degrees of generality in the lines set 
to be learned in the same stage of the pupil's development 
— the woof of the course. This would rearrange, some- 
what, our present system. For instance, some phases of 
arithmetic are more general than some in algebra and in 
geometry. This means that some phases of arithmetic 
should be taught after some phases of algebra and 
geometry. Arithmetic should be pushed up, and algebra 
and geometry should be pulled down, till equal degrees of 
generality come at the same stage of the pupil's develop- 
ment. Geometry should extend all the way through school 
life. 

The fundamental law of method suggests an important 
truth concerning the teacher's preparation. The teacher, 
in presenting any phase, should know its relation to the 
preceding and succeeding phases. The primary teacher, 
for instance, who presents an individual object and initiates 
the pupil's movement out into the widening circle of 
relations, will need to perceive all the relations, even out 
to the universal. He must see the end from the beginning. 
No primary teacher can move with a steady and assured 
progress who sees only relations to the extent of the ability 
of the class. And, also, the teacher of higher grades 
should know the relations upon which his work is condi- 



108 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

tioned. He must see the beginning from the end. Teach- 
ers and normal schools have too much faith in the direct 
preparation for doing a given grade of work. Specific 
methods may be of service, but they can never guide and 
inspire as do the ever widening relations of the subject and 
the prof oundest laws of life in the student, — relations in 
the subject and in life which go far beyond what the 
teacher is immediately dealing with. 

So far in the discussion of universal method, two points 
have been reached : — 

1. Method is the movement by which the mind of the 
learner identifies itself with the thought and spirit of 
the world other than himself, and thus participates in 
the universal life of the world, which is his inheritance. 

2. The fundamental law in the foregoing movement is 
that the mind, in the function of the senses, understanding, 
and reason, rises from the individual through the general 
to the universal, and descends from the universal through 
the general to the individual. On the lowest plane, by 
means of the intuition of the senses, the mind becomes 
aware of concrete objects in the sensuous world ; on the 
highest plane, by the intuition of the reason, the mind 
becomes aware of truth, beauty, and goodness as manifested 
in the concrete world. Between these two lie the pro- 
cesses of the understanding — abstraction, comparison, 
generalization, induction, and deduction — not an immediate 
seizing as with the other two, but by the conscious process 
with the relations among objects builds a kind of Jacob's 
ladder from the sensuous earth to the spiritual heavens. 



ITS SPECIFIC PHASES. 109 



SPECIFIC PHASES OF THE LAW. 1 

So far we have traced, in most general outline, the 
movement of the mind in learning the object under con- 
sideration. This process is now to be reduced to its 
specific phases and concrete working point in teaching. 

In the thought movement above described, the indi- 
vidual is held in the grasp of two sets of relations : one 
which gives the object its distinct individuality, isolating 
it from every other object ; another which connects the 
object with other objects. If we blot out all the differ- 
ences between this table and all other tables, or between 
it and furniture, or trees, this table disappears. It cannot 
be a table without marks which separate it from other 
things. If, likewise, we take away all the attributes 
common to this table and all other tables, or common to 
furniture or trees, this table disappears. It cannot exist 
without common attributes. The object must have its own 
unity, and its unity with the universe. We cannot think 
an individual without putting into it a meaning broader 
than its own individuality. 

This brings us to two attributes already mentioned ; the 
individual and the universal ; the first separating from, and 
the second connecting with, all other objects in the uni- 
verse. Thus the individual object is grasped as an organic 

1 This chapter covers some of the ground treated in the second 
chapter of my Science of Discourse ; and, when serving my purpose, 
I have used paragraphs from that discussion. 



110 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

unit in itself ; or as in unity with other individuals. This 
unity with other individuals is either through an organic 
relation with other individuals; or through a common 
nature, a common origin, with other individuals. But 
when an individual enters into organic relation with other 
individuals, a new individual is formed ; thus leaving but 
one unity aside from the organic individual — the unity of 
a common nature with other individuals. For instance, 
John Smith has his own individual organic unity. He is 
also in unity with the world about him ; and in two ways : 
in one way he is in unity with other persons because he is 
in organic relations with them — cooperating with them 
for a common good. In this way he helps to form a 
higher and a more complex individual organism ; as, a 
school, a church, a state. In the other way, he is in unity 
with other persons through the common idea man ; the 
idea in which all men have their origin. 

Thus, the individual objects, ocean, lake, river, con- 
tinent, island, mountain, etc., cooperate to form the organ- 
ism, earth. All objects are thus held in the grasp of a 
unifying force. All things act and react on all things. 
" There is not a red Indian hunting by Lake Winnipic, can 
quarrel with his squaw, but the whole world must smart 
for it ; will not the price of beaver rise ? It is a mathe- 
matical fact that the casting a pebble from my hand alters 
the centre-of-gravity of the universe." 

What are commonly known as individual objects act and 
react upon each other ; cooperating in larger and still 
larger unities, which are themselves individuals, to some 



ITS SPECIFIC PHASES. Ill 

single result. Thus we have to deal only with the indi- 
vidual in organic unity, or in class unity. 

The organic unity constituting the individual is through 
the cooperation of attributes and parts to the end of 
the individual ; the class unity, as already suggested, is 
through the idea which gives origin to the individuals. 
The parts of the tree, root, trunk, and branches, cooperate 
to accomplish the purpose of the tree; thus making the tree 
an organic unit. But the tree has not only this unity in 
itself ; it has unity with all other trees in the idea which 
originated them. The individuals forming the parts of 
the class unit do not cooperate for the good of the indi- 
viduals or the class ; but the parts of an individual, which 
are themselves as much individuals as are the parts of 
the class, do thus cooperate. This chair has parts and 
attributes bound into unity through the end which the 
chair has to serve ; but this chair does not cooperate with 
other chairs to form the class chair. The individual 
chairs forming the class have their unity in the single 
idea originating all chairs. 

The parts of the organic individual are bound together 
in space and time through interdependence ; the parts of 
the class are bound together in identity of nature. In 
both cases there are parts ; but in the first, the unity is 
because of differences ; in the second, because of like- 
nesses. There could be no organic unity among the parts 
of the sewing machine if the parts were the same ; since 
each part in an organism has a different function. There 
could be no unity in the class sewing machine except 



112 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

through identity of idea which produces each individual, 
forming a part of the class. 

Note the fact that the parts of the organic unit and of 
the class unit are not different in themselves ; but that 
the difference lies in their relation to each other. The 
parts of a class become parts of an individual as soon as 
these parts begin to cooperate — assume interdependencies 
to achieve some good for the whole of which they are 
parts. The class of people called teachers organize and 
thus become an individual — an organization. Certain 
objects, when thought of as to their common nature, are 
called planets ; but thinking of the same individuals in 
organic relation, they are called the solar system. When 
speaking of men, we think of individuals forming a class, 
because we think of them as having a common origin ; but 
we must also think of them as organized for the good 
of each and all. Englishmen have a common blood, a 
common genesis. In this they have their class unity, and 
as such are treated by the ethnologist. But the historian 
treats them as one organized life — organized into indus- 
trial, civil, and cultural institutions. Or, to turn the illus- 
tration about, the organic earth has parts, and these parts 
may be viewed in classes ; as, rivers, mountains, etc. Thus 
the parts of an organic unit may be thought into classes, 
and the parts of a class into an organic unit. 

Let it be observed that the idea which originates the 
individuals of a class is infinite as to the number it may 
produce. There is no limit, so far as the idea is con- 
cerned, to the number of reapers the idea reaper can 



ITS SPECIFIC PHASES. 113 

produce. So that a class cannot be thought as bounded 
in time or space. The moment this is done, the individual 
group, assembly, congregation, or such, is formed. Thus 
the individual must be thought as having its unity in 
space and time ; while the class is not thus denned. A 
class may be bounded, but this is not essential to the 
thought of the class, while it is to the individual. Super- 
ficially, to give anything individuality in thought is to 
impose on it space and time boundaries. 

Individuals are of increasing complexity from the 
simple atom to the universe. We are accustomed to 
suppose that the thinking of classes is a higher form of 
mental activity than that required in thinking individuals. 
This would be true were the individual always the simpler 
individual. But individuals rise into complexity until the 
highest individual, the universe, includes within it all 
classes. To describe a pencil or narrate a journey requires 
an elementary form of activity ; but to describe the earth 
as an organism affecting the development of the human 
race, or to narrate the development of human life on the 
earth, requires a different order of thinking. 

Hence, from the view taken of the object, there are two 
processes of teaching : one process presenting the indi- 
vidual in itself, as Chicago, the Brooklyn Bridge, that 
tree, this mental act ; the other process presenting the 
individual as to its unity of idea with other individuals, 
giving rise to the class — general notion — concept; as, 
city, friendship, government. It is practical guidance for 
the teacher to know that, whatever the subject to be 



114 THE TEACHING PEOCESS. 

taught, the objects to be presented are of these two kinds. 
In geography, it is the earth, or some individual part of 
it, as, Rocky Mountains, Gulf Stream, London ; or classes 
of parts, as, rivers, winds, continents. In history, it is 
this or that individual event, or classes of events ; or the 
organic life of the people taken in unity. In arithmetic, 
it is this or that individual relation, as, five-sixths divided 
by two ; or particular relations generalized into a law — 
the truth concerning each individual relation which makes 
possible the other relations. There will be an individual 
problem of carpeting a room ; but the general law of 
carpeting rooms must be developed. And so through all 
topics to be taught ; it is the individual viewed in its own 
inherent constitution ; or in its unity of nature with other 
individuals. The latter view gives rise to what is known 
as the general object, general notion, class, or concept. 
The object under the first view is simply known as the 
individual. 

We have thus descended one step from the universal 
law summed up on page 108. By that law the mind 
elevates the individual into its universal signification ; it 
passes in a circle from the individual to the universal, 
and back to the individual, holding the universal and indi- 
vidual in unity. The method of doing so is by thinking 
the individual under its relations of organic and class 
unity. Obviously, the next problem is, how to think the 
individual and the general object. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 115 

THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 

The Two Phases of the Process. — Each individual must 
be thought either as it exists in a fixed, a statical, form ; 
or in a changing, a dynamical, form. These are not differ- 
ent individuals, for every object must exist in these two 
relations ; but different ideas formed of the same indi- 
vidual, according as the mind views it under one or the 
other of these relations. The tree can be viewed as it 
exists at a given moment, with its parts and attributes 
coexisting; or in course of development from the seed to 
its present form — with consecutive attributes and parts. 
It requires both relations to fill out the idea tree. The 
mind may be viewed with its attributes and faculties as 
they exist at a given moment, or as changing in successive 
moments of time, — the mind fixed, with attributes and 
faculties coexisting, or the mind with its attributes and 
faculties manifested in successive moments of time. It 
requires both these relations to fill out the idea mind. 
But these individuals cannot be viewed in both these 
relations at the same time ; and in the process of thought 
the mind makes of the actual individual two thought indi- 
viduals. The tree or the mind may, in the same lesson, 
be presented in both phases of its existence ; but there 
would be yet two distinct processes. The actual individual, 
however, is usually classed as either a fixed or a changing 
individual, according as the static or the dynamic relation 
is prominent. In fact, it is at first difficult to view some 
fixed individuals, as the earth, and some moving indi- 



116 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

viduals, as a battle, or a process of digestion, in but one 
way. Yet a battle and digestion have parts that coexist. 
Besides, the successive parts are conceived as they exist in 
given moments. 

The conception of a change in time is the result of the 
comparison of the individual as statical in two successive 
moments. While the object is changing, it still has co- 
existing attributes and parts ; and these must be held in 
mind while the object is viewed as changing. There can 
be no conception of an individual as changing, without 
involving the conception of the individual as fixed. At 
this moment the growing orange consists of a given form, 
size, flavor, odor, and parts ; without conceiving these as 
coexisting, it is impossible to think the next change it 
may undergo. An object cannot be perceived in the act 
of change. The change is inferred from a comparison of 
the object at a given moment with itself at a preceding or 
a succeeding moment. Hence the process of thinking the 
object as changing is conditioned on- the process of thinking 
it as fixed. The former process brings the student nearer 
to the truth in the object ; for it is the nature of things 
to change. Every object, in "fulfilling its own nature, 
passes out from its own nature." Thus, thinking an object 
as changing discloses the moving force which is its life 
and being. 

The two ways of thinking the individual are determined 
by the fact that the mind thinks everything under the 
form of coexistence or of sequence — under forms of space 
and time. Or, it would amount to the same thing to say 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 11T 

that the two ways of thinking the individual are deter- 
mined by the nature of the object, which is, that it at 
the same time exists in space and endures in time. Even 
spiritual objects are figured under forms of space. One 
cannot think emotions without projecting them out in 
external form, side by side, in space. They are divided and 
set over against each other as are, in thought, the parts 
of a tree. The fact that the two ways of thinking the 
object, above set forth, are determined either by the nature 
of the thinking mind or of the object which the mind 
thinks, emphasizes once more the fact of unity between 
the thinker and the object which he thinks. 

Individuals also differ as to the way in which they are 
first presented to the mind. One class is first known 
through the senses; the other, through consciousness. That 
particular tree is first known through the senses; that par- 
ticular state of sadness is first known through conscious- 
ness. Thus we have material individuals and spiritual 
individuals. When presenting individuals the teacher 
will always be concerned with one or the other of these 
kinds. The pupil will be thinking his own mind or a 
mineral ; Miltpn or a mountain ; a poem or a pencil ; the 
life of a people or the land on which they dwell, etc. 
Some objects, such as Gladstone or London, have a material 
and a spiritual side. London is organized life and not 
merely buildings and streets. In fact, every material 
object should be reduced back to its immaterial force, 
at least ; if not to its spiritual content. A word, on one 
side, is a material thing ; but it is the embodiment of an 



118 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

immaterial idea. A statue is a form of granite ; but no 
study of it as a mere material thing would suffice. Its 
spiritual content must be reached. A rainbow is a physical 
phenomenon ; but its physical analysis does not exhaust 
it, or reach the best it has for man. A lily is a physical 
organism ; and, while it must be analyzed as such, the 
ear must be adjusted to its whisper of infinite truth and 
beauty. The individual material thing is the expression 
of a universal spiritual truth. The material world is the 
manifestation of the spiritual ; and must be resolved into 
it. Of course we speak here of the poetic transforma- 
tion of the material object. But such a process is only 
the penetration to its real meaning. When Lowell says, 
"With our faint hearts the mountain strives," he gives 
as substantial and undoubted an attribute of the mountain 
as the geographer could discover, and of infinitely more 
significance to the interests of man. Thus the material 
and the spiritual nature of objects mingle ; and this fact 
must be observed in their treatment ; the two worlds are 
organically related ; and while every individual must be 
viewed as to how it is at a given moment and how it came 
to be what it is, it must be made to face both the material 
and the spiritual world. 

The two teaching processes, presenting coexistent indi- 
viduals and consecutive individuals, correspond to the two 
discourse processes presenting the same, called description 
and narration, whether presenting material or spiritual 
individuals. These names are appropriate to the teaching 
processes, so that we may speak of the process of teaching 
by description, and the process of teaching by narration. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 119 

Thinking the Individual as fixed. 

The individual is never simple ; but is a unity of com- 
plex ideas. The problem is to cause the pupil to think 
the complex idea under the relation of unity. 

First, the mind, by means of perception, becomes con- 
scious of the individual as an object merely differentiated 
from other objects ; then the judgment analyzes the object 
into its elements ; and organizes the elements into the 
individual. The mere something of which the mind is 
first aware, becomes, through analysis and synthesis, a 
definite, organic individual — an individual organized about 
some central principle. The first step, that of seizing the 
object as an undifferentiated whole, is made without effort 
on the part of the pupil ; but he must make a conscious 
effort in analyzing and synthesizing the elements. These 
two phases move hand in hand ; as he analyzes he synthe- 
sizes, and as he synthesizes he further analyzes. The 
analysis keeps one pace ahead; but synthesis must organize 
as soon as each new element is found. Thus, while analysis 
precedes synthesis, the analysis of the object is not com- 
pleted before the synthesis is begun. 

The constituent elements into which the individual must 
be analyzed are attributes and parts. An individual can- 
not exist or be conceived without either. The distinction 
between attributes and parts is based on whether there 
is mutual exclusion. Attributes fuse — coincide ; parts 
exclude each other. The length and breadth, the weight 
and strength, the cost and use of the Suspension Bridge 



120 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

coincide; the parts, as braces and ropes and beams, each 
excludes the other from its own place. 

The perception that an object has parts is conditioned 
on the perception of its attributes; for a part must be 
distinguished from the whole, and one part from another, 
by means of attributes. Hence an object must be thought 
under the relation of substance and attribute before it is 
thought under the relation of whole and part. Once more 
the teacher reaches practical guidance in knowing that the 
individual must be conceived under these ' two relations, 
and in the order named. 

THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL THROUGH ATTRIBUTES. 

Let us not forget the primary problem in method, as 
stated at the outset of the discussion on method. It is 
this: How the mind identifies itself with the object — 
finds itself in the object ; or, what amounts to the same 
thing, how does it find the object. It does so just in so 
far as it recognizes its own categories, its own activities, 
in the object. All the attributes of objects are translat- 
able into mental experiences. They are forms of mental 
activities as well as defining and limiting marks of the 
object. It has already been observed that taste in the 
object thought is also taste in the thinker ; and that pur- 
pose in the object considered is a mental relation on the 
part of the one who considers it. The attributes now to 
be treated are relations between the subject and the object; 
although naturally, and, therefore, conveniently, we think 
of them as if they were wholly objective. An attribute 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 121 

may as properly be defined from one side as from the 
other ; thus, an attribute is that which limits and defines 
the nature of the object ; or, viewed from the side of 
mind, it is that in the mind by which an object is known, 
or by which one object is distinguished from another. 
If there were no differences among objects, as shown by 
their attributes, they could not exist ; neither would it 
be possible to think them. 

The foregoing must not suggest that there is no differ- 
ence between the thinker and the object ; this difference 
cannot be canceled without fusing the subject and the 
object, and then both vanish. But unless, with this differ- 
ence, there is a unity of some kind, it is impossible to 
conceive how the mind could think the object. This may 
be a mysterious unity ; but no less so than the difference. 
The mind can think only on condition of both. This may 
be the origin of the mind's law of thinking all things 
under the relation of diversity and unity. It finally comes 
to the unity of a self-conscious spirit back of all things ; 
and thus finds for itself the ultimate unity sought, and 
in which it participates. " Thus, all thinking is a process 
in which the self finds the self again — the living energy 
contemplates the living energy under the object." All 
this is to emphasize the fact that the following attributes, 
while considered from the objective standpoint, are relations 
between the thinker and the object. 

The primary subdivision of attributes has already been 
forecast by the thought that every object must be con- 
sidered in itself and in its relation to other objects ; thus 



122 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

giving attributes of (1) Relations, and (2) Properties. 
These express the two phases of activity in thinking the 
object, or the two modes of the object's existence. While 
all attributes are relations, in one class we are conscious 
of the fact, while in the other we are not. When we 
think that the sun melts the snow we are conscious of the 
relation of the sun to the snow ; but when we say that 
the sun is bright, we are not conscious of a relation, but 
of brightness. The distinction here is one of consciousness 
and not in fact. 

Attributes of Relation. — These are attributes which 
cannot be thought without bringing into mind some object 
other than their subject. In thinking of the book on the 
table, the attribute of position requires the table. Here 
the book is the subject of the attribute of place. But 
this attribute of place cannot be conceived in connection 
with its subject alone. These attributes always distinguish 
their subject by reference to some other object — by some 
external limitation ; while Properties distinguish their sub- 
ject by some inherent mark — by some internal limitation. 
The most fundamental Relation of an object is that of ' 

Purpose and Means. — The purpose, or end, which the 
object is to serve calls the object into being and unifies 
its other attributes and parts. These are what they are 
because of its purpose. The end exists as idea before the 
object exists as means ; but the object exists as means 
before the end can exist as objective reality. Hence, the 
end, or purpose, is properly called both first cause and 
final cause. It is the end which is the beginning, and 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 123 

the beginning which, is the end. It is just as proper to 
say that health promotes exercise as to say that exercise 
promotes health. Health, held in mind, as idea to be 
realized, causes one to take exercise, and the exercise 
causes the real health. Exercise stands between health 
and health, as caused and causing. The thing created by 
the idea set up to be realized is a means to the realization 
of the idea. Thus the object to be considered is created 
by some idea which the object in turn is to bring forth 
into the objective world of reality. To study an object 
under this relation, therefore, is to penetrate to its creative 
energy; an energy which the mind recognizes as its own. 
Hence it is through this relation that the mind and the 
object come into closest unity, as already proposed by the 
problem of method. 

Growing out of the relation of this creative energy to 
its object are the three attributes, trite, beautiful, and good, 
depending on whether the intellect, the sensibility, or the 
will interprets the relation. 

There is an idea, a type, an energy which creates the oak. 
If the intellect perceives the relation of unity between the 
idea and the reality; if it concludes that the real oak is 
true to the idea oak, it pronounces the tree true. When 
we say that he is a true man, it is a true line, or that is 
a true action, we mean that the real man, line, or action 
correspond exactly to the idea man, line, or action. The 
attribute true is the relation of unity, as perceived by the 
intellect, between the ideal and the real. 

If we feel that the idea, in the case of the oak, is not 



124 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

constrained by the real ; if we feel that there is no conflict 
between what is and what ought to be ; we pronounce the 
tree beautiful. In the acorn, the idea oak is in conflict 
with the real, with the acorn. The possible oak is in the 
acorn, and must destroy the acorn to realize itself. But 
when the perfect tree appears, the ideal and real are one. 
Then the oak is both ideal and real. 

The form of the real must be such as to seem to give 
freedom to the idea or type within the object. There 
must be no antagonism, no conflict ; the form does not 
clash with the ideal ; the manifestation and the idea are 
one. The tree, gnarled, twisted, and lopped, seems to do 
violence to its own nature — to the ideal tree. The perfect 
form of the tree is felt to be such only because it intui- 
tively suggests the perfection of the idea — that the idea 
has perfectly realized itself. The germ of every plant 
bears the imprint of its highest possibilities. The possible 
plant strives to become actual ; when this is felt to be 
accomplished in the individual tree, it is said to be beauti- 
ful, because there is no longer any tension between the 
ideal and the individual. An infant bears the imprint of 
its destiny. The idea, or ideal, of manhood strives in it 
to actualize itself ; and when the man's outer life pro- 
claims this to be accomplished — that the possibilities of 
manhood have become actual in the living person — we 
are touched with admiration for the beautiful in character. 
The soul instinctively strives for perfection, and rejoices 
in its attainment ; and by sympathy rejoices in the free 
manifestation of every ideal. The ultimate ground of the 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 125 

beautiful is the freedom of spirit. The essence of mind, 
or spirit, is freedom ; and by sympathy, through kinship 
with all nature, the imagination penetrates to the idea, 
the soul of the object; and the mind rejoices in a like 
freedom with its own, which it strives to realize. Thus 
an object is pronounced beautiful through the feeling of 
sympathy, of freedom, in which the soul finds itself in 
unity with the object, — ■ the end sought by the process 
called method in teaching. 

A good object is one that accomplishes the end giving 
rise to the object. In speaking of a good spade, as in 
speaking of a true or beautiful one, a relation of the spade 
to its creative idea is expressed ; but in " good " there is 
special reference to fitness of the spade to accomplish the 
work for Avhich it was designed, and which caused the 
spade to exist. To view an object as good is to view it 
in the x^rocess of accomplishing its end. The end, as idea, 
creates the object ; the object, in turn, is to realize the 
idea and is good if adapted to do so. This becomes the 
ethical quality in persons ; the person striving to realize 
his life purpose. A good man is one who is fulfilling the 
purpose of his being. 

These three attributes, as already stated, do not differ 
in themselves. The true, the beautiful, and the good are 
one — the same relation of the ideal to its embodiment. 
This relation interpreted by the intellect, gives the true ; 
by the sensibility, the beautiful ; by the will, the good. 
The tree is true when the intellect discerns that the real 
tree corresponds to the ideal ; this same tree is beautiful 



126 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

when the emotions respond by sympathy to the freedom of 
the ideal in the real, based on the fact that the intellect 
discerns it to be true ; and it is good when our self -activity, 
as will, interprets the process of it successfully becoming 
its ideal. 

"... Beauty, Good, and Knowledge are three sisters 
That dote upon each other, friends to man, 
Living together under the same roof, 
And never can be sundered without tears." 

In these three attributes, the mind meets the object in 
closest touch. Its own striving to reach its ideal is found 
in the object. It knows its ideal ; is touched by its beauty, 
and strives to attain it. Every object, as the mind thinks 
it, has its ideal and its real ; the mind, by means of the 
idealizing power, penetrates it at this point, and finds in it 
answering elements to its own activity, and pronounces the 
object true, beautiful, or good. 

Cause and Effect. — An object exists in purpose, in 
thought, before it exists in fact. After a conception of its 
purpose, a cause must operate to produce the object ; and 
when produced, it acts and reacts on other objects, mani- 
festing itself in effects. Every object is, at the same time, 
cause and effect. Every event in history is the effect of 
causes, and is the cause of further effects. The Gulf Stream 
is at the same time the effect of a cause, and the cause of 
effects. Cause and effect are dynamical relations ; yet they 
inhere in the statical object; and are essential to its descrip- 
tion. In giving a full conception of the Andes Mountains, 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 127 

as they are at this moment, it may be necessary to think 
of the forces that upheaved them, and of their effects on 
climate, vegetable and animal life, and on the industries of 
man. The relations of cause and effect are the chief rela- 
tions under which to think a mental state. To bring a 
mental state fully into consciousness, it is necessary to think 
of the conditions and circumstances which produce the 
state ; and also to think of the conduct of the person under 
the influence of the state. To describe a state of fear is to 
sketch some object that produced that state 5 as, a tornado 
whirling aloft the ruined houses of a city, with its effects 
in the wild gesticulations and screams of the fleeing 
inhabitants. Spiritual attributes produce an effect on the 
physical appearance ; and the latter, as effect, may be an 
approach to the former as cause. Physical objects produce 
an effect on the mind, and are conceived under the 
relation of effect to the observer. To speak of an object 
as awful, terrible, stupendous, sublime, picturesque, gro- 
tesque, or beautiful, is to think of the object as a cause 
producing an effect. Irving talks of sober and melancholy 
days ; mournful magnificence ; gloomy remains ; a picture 
of glory; amazing height ; noiseless reverence ; disastrous 
story ; awful harmony ; thrilling thunders ; solemn con- 
cords ; and in doing so thinks in terms of effects produced. 
Time and Place. — An object cannot be conceived with- 
out location in time and place ; and it cannot be thus 
located without reference to another object ; hence these 
are attributes of relation. These answer the questions of 
the when and the where of the object considered. 



128 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Properties. — Properties are attributes which inhere in 
the nature of the object. They determine it from within, 
while relations determine it from without. Some proper- 
ties are essential to the existence of the object as an 
object, and are involved in every conception of it. Some 
properties are not necessary to the existence, nor to the 
conception, of the object. A body may exist and be 
conceived without taste, smell, odor, sound, or color ; but 
not without extension or the power of resistance. This 
gives rise to Primary and Secondary properties. 

Primary Properties. — These are of two kinds, Exten- 
sion, the mathematical quality ; and Resistance, the 
physical quality. 

Extension gives rise to the Form and Size of objects ; 
the first resulting from the kind, the second from the 
degree, of extension. These relations unify the other 
attributes to the senses, as purpose does to thought. The 
weight, color, taste, odor, coincide within the same form 
and limit. Extension is tire empty form of the object, 
which the other attributes are to fill out. The object 
in its relation of position, form, and size being wholly 
passive, these relations are p'roperly called statical. These, 
after purpose, are most commonly used to distinguish 
objects. They distinguish physical objects in a literal 
sense ; but spiritual objects in a figurative sense. We 
speak of a large-minded man ; of a man " four square to 
all the winds that blow"; of a straight man ; of a right- 
and wrong-headed man ; of men superior and inferior; 
of high-minded men. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 129 

Eesistance adds to the idea of a mere extended form 
that of a power which resists the muscular sense. A resist- 
ing as well as an extending something, is essential to our 
notion of being. If the reality of an object is doubted, 
the question is settled by testing its power of resistance. 
If there is no resistance we pronounce the object an 
illusion, however positively the other senses may affirm 
their verdict. A ghost deceives all the senses but one. 

This general attribute of resistance manifests itself in 
particular objects, as hard, soft, fluid, firm, tough, brittle, 
rigid, flexible, rough, smooth, light, heavy, compressible, 
incompressible, elastic, non-elastic, etc. — the physical 
properties of matter, as the others were the mathe- 
matical. It is obvious that these attributes are given 
by the muscular sense; the lowest sense giving the most 
fundamental quality. This sense, through these primary 
qualities of resistance, brings us into a knowledge of 
external existence. While the spatial relations condition 
the existence of matter as such, these are the inner forces 
which determine and distinguish all objects as objects. 
They are not determined from without, but are themselves 
the shaping and conditioning forces. These forces reveal 
themselves only in reaction against a force within our- 
selves ; and with them we begin our struggle with the outer 
world. These physical attributes, which are manifested in 
the struggle with the material world, are the ones attri- 
buted to spirit in its struggle in the moral world ; such as 
firm, rigid, resisting, flexible, stern, unyielding, stable, 
resolute, strong, lenient, persistent, austere, rigorous, etc. 



130 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Attributes of resistance include not only passive resist- 
ance but active resistance — resistance rising into self- 
activity and will. The will is the analogue of muscular 
resistance. Man, in putting aside allurements or in facing 
dangers in order to hold to his ideal worth, displays the 
attribute of resistance in a much higher degree than the 
stone in his pathway, which, because hard and heavy, he 
shuns. Eesistance, properly considered, is the highest 
manly virtue. A man must stand for something and 
against something. The degree of force with which this 
is done marks his manhood. This relation of resistance, 
after rising into self-activity, is the one employed in 
thinking all mental phenomenon. The mind can be 
known only as a self-active power. In describing a man's 
faculties of intellect, or his sensibility or will, it must be 
done in terms of free activity. Thus there is the same 
relation for thinking a material and a spiritual object. 
This power of resistance rises gradually into the form of 
self -activity. The plant has more of this than the clod 
from which it springs ; the animal has more than the 
plant ; and the man more than either. The mind can 
limit itself and thus become the object of its own activity. 
Being able to think itself, it manifests a higher form of 
activity than any other object. 

The subject and the object both being active, these 
attributes are called statico-dynamical. 

Secondary Properties. — These are less essential to the 
object. They are felt to be affections of the senses rather 
than qualities of the object. Sound is felt to be subjec- 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 131 

tive ; while firmness, given by the muscular sense, is felt 
to be in the object. The muscular sense gives an objective 
resisting something, which as cause produces a subjective 
effect on the sense of touch, taste, smell, hearing, and 
sight ; giving rise to the various tactile sensations, tastes, 
odors, sounds, and colors. These senses cannot reveal to 
us the objective world; unless the sense of sight be an 
exception, cooperating with the muscular sense to give 
externality and form. With this exception, these second- 
ary attributes produce their effect on the senses through 
an active condition of the body to which the attributes 
belong. The object, to be tasted or smelt, must be in a 
state of dissolution ; and to be heard, in a state of motion. 
Sight and touch are more nearly like the muscular sense 
in that they present the body in its normal condition ; yet 
light is conveyed to the eye through the vibration of the 
particles of the body, and the same is true of some forms 
of tactile sensations. 

These attributes grade upward in this order : touch, 
taste, smell, hearing, and sight. In this ascending order, 
the object becomes more and more active and the observer 
more and more passive. Also, the closeness of contact of 
the observer with the object diminishes in passing from 
touch to sight ; or, as the distance of the object from the 
observer increases. In touch, the contact is close ; in sight 
it may be as remote as the stars. Again, the defmiteness 
of location and specialization of function increases from 
touch to sight ; the sense of touch being distributed over 
the body, while the sense of sight is focused at a point. 



132 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

The oigan of touch has other functions than that of touch ; 
but the eye is relieved from all duties but that of sight. 
But more to the present purpose, this ascending order of 
attributes is ascending in importance in thinking the 
object. Sight and sound reveal more fully the nature of 
an object than do odor and taste. In sight the object is 
active, making this attribute near to that of active resist- 
ance. The same is true of sound, but in a less degree. 
There is more resistance and activity in a flash of light- 
ning than in a clap of thunder. 

Since the object is active, affecting the subject, these 
attributes are properly called dynamical. 

The attributes are secondary only in the sense that they 
are less essential to the existence of the object. If the 
basis were the effect on the mind, the order would be 
reversed ; for sight and hearing stand first in that they 
minister to the wants of the soul ; while taste and smell 
minister to the wants of the body ; and the other attri- 
butes, to the necessities of the object. 

Thus the muscular sense stands at one extreme of the 
sense scale, giving that which is of first importance to the 
object; and hearing and sight at the other, giving that 
which is of first importance to the mind. 

The terms used to name physical qualities are freely 
used metaphorically to name spiritual qualities. In fact, 
all words descriptive of spiritual objects originally signified 
physical attributes. Those that seem now to be applied 
literally, as calm, candid, pure, sincere, bright, dull, etc., 
have simply lost their physical analogy through constant use. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 133 

Viewing now the whole list of attributes, it may be 
observed that it constitutes an ascending order from mere 
tactile sensation and taste to purpose. And this is not 
only an ascending order of attributes, but, as might be 
expected from the unity between the mind and its object, 
it is an ascending order of activities by which these attri- 
butes are grasped. Touching or tasting is a lower order of 
activity than that required in grasping cooperation of means 
to end. Besides, the lower, sensuous activities cannot grasp 
the larger complex individuals. Sight cannot make one 
aware of a state, as it can of a house ; and taste can reveal 
to the mind an orange, but not the organized orange in- 
dustry. The senses which give the secondary attributes 
cannot enter the higher realm. Mind alone reigns there. 

From tactile sensation and taste to resistance and ex- 
tension, inclusive, the knowledge comes by observation — 
through sense-impressions made by the outer world. This 
is the field of observation lessons, and introduces the lower 
phase of work with natural objects — object lessons. It is 
well to insist here on the systematic training to thorough, 
accurate, and methodical observation ; for such activity 
and habit are necessary to bring the mind into the unity 
of truth with the object. Thorough observation (thorough 
== through) means that the pupil uses the complete circle 
of the senses on the complete circle of properties ; accurate 
observation means that each attribute be discriminated 
from the other attributes and from the same attributes in 
other objects ; and methodical observation means that each 
attribute must be taken in the order in which it is needed 



134 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

by the mind in constituting the object. The mind naturally 
begins observing with muscular sense, including touch, and 
through these arrives at form and size. Then, into the 
resisting something having form, it puts, fuses, the other 
attributes, beginning with the attribute given by the eye. 
Thus the object is given individuality, in which the other 
attributes inhere. The following from Hickok's Mental 
Science exemplifies the method of observation : " Then 
this (a large crystal of salt) is taken under the pressure of 
muscular touch, the property of a hard impenetrability is 
at once perceived, and when the pressure has been spread 
over the entire surface, the cubic form of the crystal will 
be given in connection with the hardness. If the light 
falling on the cubic crystal be reflected to the eye in a 
scientific experiment, there will be the perception of a 
gray color taking the cubic form and connecting itself 
with the hard crystal of the touch in exact coincidence. 
If the hard, colored crystal be stricken together with 
another and aerial reverberations reach the ear, there will 
be perceived the noisy click of the percussion put directly 
as a property of sound within the colored cubic hard- 
ness. If this, again, be carried to the tongue, there will 
further be perceived an acrid taste, and when all is yet 
further brought to the nose, there will, with the taste, also 
be a saline odor, and both the acrid taste and the bitter 
smell will be consciously connected with the formerly 
perceived properties. The crystal will now be recognized 
as hard, and cubic, and gray, and acrid, and with a saline 
smell, and a clicking sound. It has now gone the circuit 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL, 135 

of the attending senses and the property of each having 
been joined, each respectively to the other, all are now 
concentratively connected in the one crystal." 

Thus let the student be required to observe thoroughly 
and in order, such objects as a piece of cork, rubber, stone, 
chalk, metal, a leaf, an apple, etc. In this exercise the 
logical order of attributes must be strictly adhered to. If 
the purpose of the object is given, the order of the 
attributes will be determined by the order of their relation 
to that purpose. If this is not given, as in the example 
above, the order will be determined by the physical consti- 
tution of the object. This is the best of language drills, 
especially by way of forcing to a full and accurate vocabu- 
lary. The student is thus put on the stress for attributive 
words to express the various forms, sizes, kinds, resist- 
ances, colors, sounds, tastes, and odors of objects. Such 
physical observation leads naturally into the chemical and 
physical laboratory, where ordinary observation is aided 
by experiments. 

The attributes through which the object is grasped by 
sense-observation, make it picturable to the imagination. 
The imagination is more fruitful in presenting objects 
than is the faculty of observation. The picturing faculty 
is made accurate, full, and strong on a basis of thorough 
training in sense-observation, as well as by systematic 
training in its own kind of observation. This kind of 
observation should receive as careful training as the other. 
Opportunities are offered in all lines of work. This is 
prominently true in geography and history. 



136 THE TEACHING PBOCESS. 

The sensuous object ceases in the attribute of resistance. 
Out of the material furnished by the senses the mind con- 
structs the object in space and time — its position, form, 
and size. Cause and effect are not perceivable or pictur- 
able. These relations must be grasped by the understand- 
ing. Purpose and means, in the form of the true, beautiful, 
and the good, are apprehended by the intuition of reason. 
Thus the scheme of attributes appears in an ascending 
order from taste to purpose. And this suggests the 
important thought that this order of attributes is an 
ascending scale of thinking the universal into the individ- 
ual. Tasting an object puts little meaning into it ; 
hearing gi^es more of its internal and essential constitu- 
tion ; its relation to other objects as manifested in cause 
and effect is still more significant ; and when its purpose 
is reached, its mental intention, its fullest nature is dis- 
closed. This ascending order means closer and closer 
unity of the thinker with the object. When an object is 
said to be bitter or pungent, or hard or square, it seems 
quite other than the self ; but when adaptation to some 
ideal end is reached, there is at once a feeling of kinship 
with the object. This is shown by the increasing delight 
accompanying the upward ascent of thought. When the 
pupils feel that there is adjustment to some design, he has 
met most intimately his own life in the object. 

The preceding suggests a great truth of method in 
education. The pupil's spiritual life must be aided to 
transcend his sensuous life ; and more, his sensual life. 
This can be done by revealing to him the pure mental 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 137 

delight in the higher relations of objects. The mathe- 
matical relations, those of cause and effect, and purpose 
and means, in the true, beautiful, and good, are free from 
all sensuality. 

Finally, a significant fact, and one full of guidance in 
teaching, must be noted. When an object is viewed under 
all the properties and relations noted, it is not necessarily 
exhaustively considered. The properties and relations — 
especially the relations — may be completely listed, but 
the fact that each has wider and still wider degree of 
generality, has not been stated. Purpose, and cause and 
effect are of two kinds, immediate and remote, with all 
degrees of remoteness. The immediate cause and effect 
of the Declaration of Independence are quite different 
from its remote cause and effect ; and they are as much 
less significant as they are less remote. The more remotely 
we take its bearings, either in its origin or its end, the 
more deeply do we penetrate it. The cotton-gin is to gin 
cotton ; so much is easy, and so much the child can think ; 
but its ultimate purpose in the spiritual development of 
man is a problem for the philosopher. The cause of the 
Mississippi River, in the immediate rainfall of its valley, 
is matter for the primary geography class ; but its remote 
cause in geologic and meteorological forces of the world 
engages the full power of the university student. The 
form of this particular cone is an elementary truth, and 
easy to comprehend until that form is to be reduced to its 
ultimate mathematical law. That an object is hard or 
soft, light or heavy, is found immediately in the object 



138 THE TEACHING PEOCESS. 

and by direct sense-perception; bnt self -activity and 
spiritual resistance are remote, subtle, and complex. 

Therefore, let it not be supposed that because an object 
is considered under all the foregoing properties and rela- 
tions, that the object is thoroughly or exhaustively consid- 
ered. Thorough thinking requires the mind to view an 
object under all its relations, or through all that the 
purpose of the thinking requires ; but this should include 
the pushing of each relation to the limit of the power 
exercised in grasping that relation. Any pupil, even in 
the first grade, may think an object under all the proper- 
ties and relations noted j but no university student will be 
able to push those same properties and relations to their 
ultimate limit. Each pupil must push the relations out as 
far as his ability will permit. The teacher must exhaust 
the pupil, but not the object. Exhaustive teaching may 
apply to the student, but never to the subject. The 
teacher beholds a wealth of relations beyond the reach of 
the student ; and the student may get a glimpse of the 
promised land, which increased knowledge and discipline 
alone will enable him to enter. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL BY MEANS OF PARTS. 

The grasping of an object as a whole under the relation 
of substance and attribute is followed by its analysis into 
parts. This process is called partition. Thus there are 
two phases of the process of thinking the individual : the 
attributive phase and the partitive phase. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 139 

The object to be described is a unity of complex ideas — 
attributes and parts. Growing out of this fact, the law 
of thinking is-, that the mind must grasp the object in its 
unity of these ideas. The law of unity which controls in 
attributive description is now to control partitive descrip- 
tion. The object being a unit composed of organic parts, 
the mind must analyze it into parts, and then synthesize 
the parts into their organic unity. This law of organic 
unity through analysis and synthesis requires the student — 

1. To think the object into parts on the same basis of 
division ; 

2. To think the parts in the order determined by the 
basis ; 

3. To think all the parts which the basis determines. 

1. Every object has some unifying idea. This may be 
the relation of parts in space, the order in which they 
occur to the eye, or some fundamental principle. The first 
two are the mere outer form of unity ; the operation of the 
fundamental principle produces the real unity. 

In dividing an individual there is a choice of bases, 
determined by the purpose of the description. It may 
serve the purpose best to follow some accidental basis, as 
the order in which the parts appear to the eye, or the 
relative position in space. Such obvious and superficial 
bases are always used in the lower order of descriptions — 
descriptions in which the sensuous phase of the object is 
made prominent. The more scientific the description, the 
more fundamental the basis. This is a question of adapta- 
tion to a purpose. On the basis of separation in space, 



140 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the child readily divides the human body into head, trunk, 
and limbs. And this is the best basis for the child, but 
the physiologist would insist on a basis more intimately 
connected with life processes. The ordinary description 
of a landscape would require the mention of such parts as 
appear at different places, or as occur at different moments 
of time. But for geopraphical purposes, the basis must be 
some fundamental relation to life. Every change in the 
basis gives a new set of parts. 

Not only does this law require the basis to be chosen 
which is best adapted to the purpose of the teaching, but 
it requires that all the parts be determined on the same 
basis. 

If a teacher should present a tree as composed of root, 
bark, trunk, woody substance, branches, and pith ; or the 
human body as composed of flesh, blood, nerves, muscular 
tissue, vital organs, adipose tissue, bone, and mechanical 
system, using two or more bases of division, utter con- 
fusion would arise in the mind of the learner. The 
divisions should be such as could be made of the actual 
object. The tree can be actually parted into root, trunk, 
and branches, putting each part in a different place. So 
with pulpy matter, woody substance, and pith. But if one 
should attempt to make an actual division of the tree on 
both bases at once, he would have a practical illustration 
of what the law of unity means in requiring the divisions 
to be made on the same basis. 

2. Having determined the parts by the same basis, the 
parts must be presented in the order in which they are 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 141 

found in the object, as determined by the adopted basis. 
To present the parts of a tree as roots, leaves, trunk, and 
branches, would cause the mind to form an object wholly 
different from the one to be described. 

The basis of partition used determines the order of 
presenting the parts. It is not necessarily an order of 
nearness in space, or succession in time. It may be an 
order of functional relation. When the basis of division 
is that of space, the parts must be named in spatial order. 
When the basis of division is the order of observation in 
time, the parts must be named in the order of occurrence. 
When the basis is some determining principle, the parts 
must be named in their functional relation, without regard 
to their position or succession. Thus the parts of the eye- 
ball may be named from without inward, or from within 
outward, following an order in space ; or, following the 
operation of the law of optics, there would be an entirely 
different method of procedure ; as, first, the retina ; 
second, the crystalline lens, with the parts about it which 
aid in refracting light; then those parts which regulate 
the light ; followed by those which adjust and protect the 
image-forming parts. 

3. Not only must the parts be determined by the same 
basis and presented methodically, but all the parts deter- 
mined by the basis must be enumerated. To present a 
tree as composed of trunk, branches, and leaves ; or a 
flower as composed of calyx, corolla, and pistil, is to 
present the mind with an incomplete unit ; and hence, a 
violation of the general law of unity. 



142 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Thus the basis being determined by the purpose, if all 
such parts as the basis gives be presented in the order of 
their relation as determined by the basis, the mind will 
the more readily and correctly organize them into the 
unity they were before their necessary separation in the 
process of presentation. 

Strict adherence to the foregoing laws of partition will 
train the pupil to the power of grasping an object clearly ; 
i.e., the power of thinking the individual into parts, and, 
at the same time of thinking the parts into their organic 
unity. The teacher will not need to seek an opportunity 
for this kind of drill ; for it will of necessity occur daily. 
In treating such objects as an eye, a thermometer, a ship, 
an engine, a bird, a human body, a landscape, a legislature, 
etc., he must apply the process of partition ; and the more 
rigidly this is done the greater the power of analysis 
conferred and the more accurate the knowledge gained. 
The power of analysis does not at all mean the power of 
mere separation : it means the power of seeing parts as 
parts of a whole. Power of analysis means coordinating 
and organizing power. 

After the analysis of an object into parts, the attributes 
of each part must be given according to the law of pre- 
senting attributes as a whole. Such attributes of each 
part must be given as will show its organic relation in the 
object as a whole. If the basis of separation is that of 
purpose, the separation into parts would be followed by 
such attributes of each part as fit it to its function. A 
different basis would not only give different parts, but 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 143 

different attributes of those parts would be required. 
When the basis of partition is the appearance of the parts 
to the eye, the picture-making attributes of color and form 
of each part must be emphasized. 

THINKING ONE INDIVIDUAL BY MEANS OF ANOTHER. 

In thinking the attributes and parts of an object, the 
relation of the object's likeness and difference is promi- 
nently and effectively employed. The mental processes 
involved are those of comparison and contrast. 

In its most abbreviated form, comparison is made by 
throwing the object into its class. The first question 
which arises concerning an object is, What is it ? That 
is, What is it like ? The answer is given by naming the 
class to which the object belongs. Often a detailed pro- 
cess of thought may be avoided by stating that the object 
under discussion is like some well-known object, or belongs 
to a well-known class. This economizes the thought 
processes by substituting the results of former processes. 
Without requiring the mind to think anew the action of 
the valves in a vein, the attention may be called to the 
valve of a pump, this being known. 

A strange fruit may be put before the mind at once by 
comparing it to an apple, if essentially like it, and thus 
save wearisome details in both language and thought. To 
refer a strange animal to its species saves a volume of 
descriptive detail and a useless repetition of thought 
processes, The implied comparison presents the essential 



144 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

character of the object, and if the special marks of the 
individual are required, a few points of contrast will fill 
the outline. Of two objects equally well known, com- 
parison and contrast is a strong means of presenting and 
deepening a knowledge of each. Often a vivid and suf- 
ficient description may be made by presenting the object 
in contrast with its extreme opposite. Besides, comparing 
an object with its opposite forces the mind to essential 
truth in the object studied. 

1. The purpose in comparison and contrast require 
that the proper object, and the proper attributes and parts 
of the object, be chosen with which to compare the theme. 
The purpose being to abbreviate thought processes, the 
object chosen must be (1) a familiar object, and (2) must 
have the greatest number of points common to the theme. 

To select an object less familiar than the theme, or 
points of comparison that need explanation themselves, is 
to defeat the purpose of the comparison. In order that 
the object may have the greatest number of points common 
to the theme it must not be chosen from a class more com- 
prehensive than necessary. The comparison of a horse with 
a reptile would violate this law. Both belong to verte- 
brates ; but it would be better to choose from mammals, as 
the bat ; better still to choose from quadrupeds, as the lion ; 
and still better to choose from the ungulata, as the ox. 

2. A second law requires that the points of likeness 
and difference be presented in the order of their relation, 
as required by the law of unity in presenting attributes 
and parts. A point of likeness may be given, and then 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 145 

a corresponding point of difference ; thus carrying the 
likenesses and differences in parallel lines. Or, all the 
likenesses may be given by themselves, and the differences 
by themselves. 

3. The law of completeness requires that all points of 
likeness and difference be given which are necessary to 
present the theme fully. 

Skill in comparison and contrast can be secured by such 
practice as will require the conscious application of the 
laws here named. 

There is no more effective means of assigning Avork than 
that of requiring the pupil to compare and contrast the 
object under consideration with a given object or objects. 
ISTo special opportunity for this need be sought ; it occurs 
in almost every lesson. In studying Africa the pupil can 
do no better than to compare it with South America ; or 
Jupiter with the Earth ; Washington with Lincoln ; the 
English government with that of the United States. 

Thinking the Individual as Changing. 

This gives the time whole as distinguished from the 
space whole. A time whole consists of all the attributes 
and parts which the object has manifested in a period of 
time. Wherever there is change there must be per- 
manence. Something that endures through all changes can 
be conceived only as such in connection with the changing. 
The brook flows on ; changes perpetually : — 

" Men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever." 



146 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

The same brook goes on forever. A man grows from 
infancy to old age ; many changes take place, but there 
is the abiding ego, the subject of all change. He does not 
lose his identity. The earth has moved from a molten 
mass to its present organized form ; attributes and parts 
have come and gone ; but the same earth remained through 
all. In all the changes of human history there has been a 
continuity of human life. Thus, change means perma- 
nence ; something that abides but manifests itself in 
varying features through a period of time. This perma- 
nent something taken with the sum of its varying mani- 
festations through a period of time constitutes the time 
whole. In the space whole the object was considered as 
the sum of its attributes and parts at a given moment, as 
it were by a cross section ; but in the time whole the sum 
is taken lengthwise the life of the object. 

To study a thing as changing forces to the discovery of 
the permanent, the essential in the object. The changes 
are not noted for their own sake ; the abiding amidst 
changes may be discerned. This plant or the constitution 
of the United States cannot be known except in the light 
of their development. Education is studied in its history 
to find what is essential in its methods. Nothing brings 
one so close to the life of a man or a nation as to study 
the changes from infancy to manhood. 

The foregoing discloses not only the value of this 
process of thinking an object, but also the method of 
thinking it. Its variations must be held into the unity of 
the unchanging something. As in the description of an 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 147 

object the greatest diversity of attributes possible, and of 
parts, were bound into the unity of the individual as it 
existed at a given moment, so the greatest diversity of 
attributes and parts is to be bound into the unity of the 
individual between two points of time. This is the law 
of unity in thinking the changing individual. 

Thus again, as in description, the mental movement as a 
whole is that of analysis and synthesis. The different 
elements existing at different times must be selected and 
synthesized into the unity of the whole. This unity is 
established by means of the following threads of relation, 
all of which are involved in every conception of change. 

Purpose. — A conception of change involves the idea of 
end, or purpose, which the change is to accomplish. 
Purpose, prompting and guiding every movement, is both 
the beginning and the end of every change. The need of a 
reaper is felt ; and this prompts to a purpose to satisfy 
the need through an invention. This purpose institutes a 
series of changes in the object to meet the need which 
prompted to the purpose. Hence, it may be said that 
purpose is the moving force in a series of changes ; and 
that in narration, as in description, it is the most funda- 
mental thought-relation. But purpose in narration differs 
from purpose in description. In narration it is viewed as 
bringing the object into reality ; while in description it is 
viewed as the work to be done by the already existing 
object. Purpose creates the mowing machine, but when 
created, the machine may be viewed as adapted to the 
work to be done. 



148 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Time. — A conception of change involves the idea of 
time, as a conception of attributes and parts in the fixed 
object involves the idea of space. A change cannot take 
place except in time; and cannot be conceived without 
its time-relations. Therefore, time, answering the ques- 
tions when and how long, is one of the fundamental 
thought-relations in narrating an object. Time is 
necessary to explain not only the relation of each event 
in a series to every other ; but also to explain the 
entire change with reference to other events. An event 
in history may be accounted for by its relation in time 
to preceding or succeeding events. In fact, it cannot be 
explained without this relation. The relation of preceding, 
succeeding, and during, one or all, are absolutely essential 
to the explanation of an event. Time has already been 
noted as one of the relations essential in thinking a fixed 
object ; but it is more prominently, and differently, 
employed in viewing a changing object. In this, periods 
are marked ; succession is given. 

Cause and Effect. — The changes in objects are produced 
by causes ; and the changes themselves produce effects. 
Every conception of a change involves the idea of cause 
and effect. To think the manufacture of a lead pencil, 
the growth of a tree, the development of character, or 
the progress of civil liberty, requires, as an element in 
the conception, the forces operative in each case to 
produce the changes, with the result produced. Therefore, 
cause and effect must be added to the fundamental 
thought-relations in grasping a changing object. Cause 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 149 

and effect, employed in thinking a fixed object, are 
differently employed in thinking the changing object. 
In this they are viewed as determining changes ; but in 
the other they were used to show the fixed nature of the 
object. When it is said that paint improves houses the 
effect is given to show the nature of paint, and not for 
the change produced. 

Whole and Part. — The relation of whole and part, as 
in the coexistent object, is the most prominent thought- 
relation in a successive object. The parts are the changes 
themselves ; and these must be kept prominently before 
the mind in the application of all other relations. Be- 
sides, in most objects the changes thrust themselves on 
the attention. They may be seen and heard; while the 
other relations reveal themselves only to thought. It is 
easy to picture the panorama of events in a battle; but 
causes, results, and purposes can be ascertained only by 
reflection. 

It is more difficult to obey the laws of partition in the 
changing object than in the fixed object, for the parts in 
this case are successive, or time parts. Time is a con- 
tinuous quantity, while a space object is discrete. Hence, 
the divisions of time are more or less arbitrary ; while in 
most space objects, nature marks the divisions. The 
shifting of a dividing line in time one hundred years will 
often do no violence to the purpose of the narration. 
Because there are no distinct separations in time, which 
the mind requires for convenience in thinking, an artificial 
system is adopted; and the divisions of time by the 



150 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

calendar, satisfying in the sharpness of its boundaries, 
stand ready made to cut events into parts of definite and 
convenient length. But whether this arbitrary exactness 
or some inner moving principle be adopted as the basis 
will be determined by the purpose of the narration. That 
basis must be chosen which will best accomplish the pur- 
pose of the narration. If the history of England be 
narrated to show the course of civil freedom, the law of 
selection would be violated in choosing the reign of kings 
as a basis of separation. This would be a proper basis, if, 
instead of their inner life, the external phase of things is 
desired. For common purposes of narration, the external 
separation of events by some accidental accompaniment, as 
the above, is proper; but for the highest purpose, the 
phases that mark the progress of the moving principle in 
the realization of itself must be chosen as the basis. In 
such a movement there are no definite boundaries ; and 
to make the arbitrary distinctions of date or king 
control the presentation is to do violence to the pur- 
pose. The picturesque phase of things may well mark 
the divisions of a child's history ; but in tracing for 
the mature, the movement towards spiritual freedom, 
the basis of the division must be the relation of that 
movement to the end. 

The law of method requires the parts to be presented in 
the order of occurrence. Whatever the basis of division, 
this order, except for the special reason of giving results 
preparatory to their explanation, cannot be violated. 
When the arbitrary divisions of time are made, the 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 151 

events must follow in the order of time ; if cause and 
effect be made the basis, effect must follow cause ; and if 
purpose, the end is realized by a series of movements in 
time. 

The law of completeness requires that all the changes 
be presented which are necessary, under the conditions, to 
the purpose of the narration. 

Likeness and Difference. — Every change involves a 
comparison and contrast of the object with itself at a 
preceding or a succeeding moment. Therefore, likeness 
and difference belong to the list of fundamental thought- 
relations in narrating an object. This relation is not only 
essential to the conception of a change, but it is used, as 
in description, to facilitate the thought processes under all 
other relations. "Well known events may be used in com- 
parison to explain an event under discussion. This not 
only shortens the narrative process, but it deepens the 
impression. For this reason, two events equally well 
known may be compared and contrasted with great advan- 
tage. 

Changes may be compared under all of the thought- 
relations above — purpose, time, cause, effect, and parts. 
Objects differ in the relations named ; and this process 
is a means of presenting each of the relations. Which 
relation shall be selected to be thus presented is deter- 
mined by the purpose of the narration as a whole. 

We have now discussed in outline the universal process 
of thinking the individual. 



152 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 



THOUGHT-RELATIONS CONSTITUTING THE INDIVIDUAL. 

I. As coexistent, or fixed. 
1. By means of Attributes. 

a. Relations. , True 

(1) Purpose and Means. \ Beautiful. 

(2) Cause and Effect. 

(3) Time and Place. 

b. Properties. 
(1) Primary. 

a. Extension. 



Good. 



J Form. 
I Size. 

b. Resistance. \ 
._, , I Passive. 

(2) Secondary. 

a. Color. 

b. Sound. 

c. Odor. 

d. Taste. 

e. Mere Tactile Sensation. 
2. As made up of Parts. 

a. Analysis by the laws of Partition. 

b. Attributes of eacli part as of the whole. 

II. As successive, or changing. 

1. As a whole, under the relation of 

a. Purpose. 

b. Time. (Place may be required.) 

c. Cause and Effect. 

d. Likeness and Difference. 

2. As composed of Parts. 

a. Analysis into parts by the laws of Partition. 

b. Each part presented under the relations of the whole. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 153 

Application of the Foregoing Exposition. 

The foregoing is a universal outline of the mind's 
movement, or method, of thinking an individual. This 
complete circle of relations in the object answers the 
complete circle of activities in the learner. One phase 
of the object is grasped by sense perception ; one, by the 
understanding; one, by reason. The mere individuality 
of the object as limited in space or time is made known 
through the senses, or picturing imagination ; the organic 
unit, or thought whole, of the object is known through 
the understanding ; while reason, as intuition, pronounces 
the object true, beautiful, or good, when measured by some 
ideal set up by the mind itself. 

In practice, the first step is to sketch all the relations 
constituting the object, and the activities by which the 
relations are grasped. Such is a kind of universal prep- 
aration for teaching the object, and must precede such a 
plan of lesson as is given under the "illustration of the 
teaching process" pages 11 to 29. But when the teacher 
is to instruct a given class of pupils, a modifying factor 
arises ; and this requires a revision of the previous uni- 
versal outline. The pupils' knowledge and discipline are 
not sufficient to enable them to think the object under all 
of its relations. This same fact may prevent teaching the 
relations in their logical order ; or from seizing the object 
in its organic unity. So that the laws of unity, method, 
selection, and completeness must be applied in the light 
of the condition of the children's minds at the time of the 



154 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

instruction. Thus the object to be taught has an order of 
relations independent of the thinking of any particular 
mind ; and this order is the universal factor of all lessons 
to be given on the object. This given class, with its 
known development, is the particular factor determining 
a given lesson. 

APPLICATION I. AMAZON RIVER. 

First Step. — Eesolving the river into its constituent 
thought-relations — the universal factor. 

1. The Amazon River as fixed. — 1. The End the river 
serves ; (a) immediate, such as drainage of a designated 
part of South America, and as a highway of travel ; (b) 
remote, as advancement of civilization, even remote good 
in the development of the race. Perhaps its highest use 
is that to the mind itself, as a clean cut type of the unity 
of physical forces, and as an emblem of life. In this 
latter view, the use of the river is that of mere expression. 
This brings it into the field of the beautiful, by making 
the individual stand for a universal. Here the mind 
comes into closest unity with the river. 

2. Cause and Effect must be noted under the two heads 
of immediate and remote. Its immediate cause is in the 
rainfall of South America; which rainfall is conditioned 
by the contour and trade winds of South America. Hence, 
contour and trade winds are remote causes, one degree 
removed from the immediate cause. Passing out from 
these, still more remote causes are found in the sur- 
roundings of South America ; and then in the form and 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 155 

revolution of the earth. The sun, moon, and stars are 
causative agents in the Amazon Eiver. The effect, im- 
mediate and remote, must likewise be traced. 

3. Time here means nothing more than the Amazon 
Eiver as now viewed ; and not the river as it was cen- 
turies ago. But this is implied and needs no remark in 
the outline. Under Place should be given its absolute 
location, by latitude and longitude ; and relative as to 
South America, including its direction. 

4. Under Extension, as to form, the course of the river 
must be traced from its mouth to its source ; as to size, 
its length, breadth, and depth must be noted — breadth 
and depth at different points, including stream and 
channel, at both the wet and the dry season. 

5. Under Eesistance, the current at different points and 
the mighty force of its volume of water are to be noted ; 
especially in its effect on the Atlantic Ocean. 

6. Of the secondary attributes, color is the only one 
essential in thinking the river. 

7. Treating this object by Partition is simple. A river 
is water flowing in a channel. A conception of a river 
includes both the stream and the channel. Hence, the 
parts are stream and channel, the basis being that of 
resistance ; the one confining the other — the relation of 
confined and confining. 

The next step must note the attributes and the parts of 
the parts. It will be observed that this has already been 
included in the description of the river as a whole, except 
the parts of the channel. These include the bed and the 



156 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

banks ; which should be given as under the attributes of 
the whole. The banks must be extended back to include 
the magnificent forests, and the sweep of the river at high 
water. 

II. The Amazon as changing. — 1. So far as can now be 
discovered the river as it now is was the End toward 
which the geologic forces creating the Amazon tended. 

2. Under Time must be given the period from its begin- 
ning to the present. Under Place, note shifting positions 
during its time. 

3. Under Cause and Effect, the geologic forces which 
made it a river, and brought it to its present condi- 
tion. 

4. Likenesses and Differences to formation of other 
rivers. 

5. Under Parts must be noted the stages of the river's 
evolution, and through what stages it will yet pass. 

Second Step. — Modifications of foregoing outline by 
limitations, in knowledge and discipline, of class to be 
taught — the particular factor. 

The mental processes of seizing each of the foregoing 
relations must be set over against the relation to be seized. 
Eor instance, if the pupil could be present and traverse 
the country, sense-perception would give the properties, 
the individualizing marks. If not present, the picturing 
imagination must create the magnificent image — sublime 
in its length, breadth, and luxuriance ' of vegetable and 
animal life. A low form of judgment through inference 
is required in forming the foregoing picture, and in dis- 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 157 

cerning the immediate relation of cause and effect. The 
pupil will picture the rapid now down the slope of the 
Andes, and the sluggish flow and widening expanse toward 
the mouth by means of inference, and should not be aided 
to do so by testimony of book or teacher. In grasping the 
more remote causes and results, a more complex and in- 
volved form of judgment is required. The judgment 
necessary to connect the contour of South America with 
the river is one degree more complex and involved than 
that required in connecting the rainfall. In one, the 
relation is seen between the objects ; in the other, between 
the relations between objects. Still more complex is the 
activity in connecting the form and motions of the earth 
with the river. Such requires simple judgment raised to 
the fourth power — grasping relations between relations, 
which are relations between other relations ; and these 
again are relations between relations between objects. To 
perceive the river as an expression of the unity of all 
physical forces and a symbol of life and destiny, requires 
the intuition of reason. There is a low degree of this, 
however, that is not beyond a primary pupil. 

Coming now to a supposed class to be taught, say a 
fourth-reader class, let it be noted that they are in the 
following condition of mind in relation to the subject : — 

1. As to knowledge, in general, they know the geo- 
graphical elements ; as, river, mountain, valley, rainfall. 
In particular, they know the exact and relative location, 
vertical and horizontal form of South America, and the 
winds blowing over it. 



158 THE TEACHING PEOCESS. 

2. As to faculties developed, the picturing imagina- 
tion is active, and. the judgment is one or two degrees 
removed from simple judgment. Under these conditions, 
what modifications need to be made in the universal 
outline ? 

First, the river as a successive individual must be 
omitted, because these pupils have no knowledge upon 
which to base the thinking required ; and the forces are 
too remote, and too wide in their reach, to be grasped by 
the order of judgment possessed. The remote causes and 
results, and purposes and means must also be canceled. 
The cause cannot be traced further into the universal force 
than the trade winds and the relief of the continent ; and 
the effect must be limited to that on the physical country 
immediately surrounding, and on the immediate industries. 

The pupil will be strong in forming the picture of the 
individual Amazon by means of its properties — form, size, 
resistance in its flow, color ; and its parts, including espe- 
cially its banks, with their dense vegetation and teeming 
animal life. This picture Amazon imaged under these 
picture relations, together with a narrow circle of relations 
connecting it with the world, constitutes the subject-matter 
for our class. The natural order for this is the formation 
of the picture first, and then the connection of the river 
with the forces forming it. 

Third Step. — The teacher is now prepared to state the 
lesson in full, as in the example pages 12 to 30 ; and 
which is given below in suggestive and briefest possible 
outline : — 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 159 

The mental process as a whole. — From the general notion 
river, to the notion of this particular river, by means of 
their knowledge of South America, already suggested. 

Steps in the process : — 

1. Imaging the position of the Amazon. 

2. Imaging the form. 

( length, ""J at different seasons. 

3. Imaging the size, ^j breadth, x > 

^ depth, J at different places. 

4. Imaging the flow at different points. (Inference 
involved.) 

5. Imaging the color. (Inference involved.) 

6. Analysis into parts, and each part treated under such 
attributes as are not involved in the foregoing, giving 
much attention to the dense life on the banks. 

7. Seasoning out the river as now pictured, inferring 
its position, form, size, etc., from the extent, relief, and 
winds of South America. 

8. Transforming the river into a type of human life. 
The teacher should keep in poetic mood ; pupils are 
always poets. With a little help, the pupil will readily 
suggest truths of life which the river reflects. It is a 
pulsating thing, rhythmical to the earth's heart-beats of 
physical forces. It, like the sluggish, muddy Concord, as 
given by Hawthorne, mirrors ideally the foliage on its 
banks, and the sky and clouds above — mirrors the heaven 
that broods over it. " All the sky glows downward at our 
feet, the rich clouds float through the unruffled bosom of 
the stream like heavenly thoughts through a peaceful 



160 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

heart. We will not, then, malign our river as gross and 
impure while it can glorify itself with so adequate a 
picture of the heaven that broods above it ; or, if we 
remember its tawny hue and the muddiness of its bed, let 
it be a symbol that the earthliest human soul has an 
infinite spiritual capacity and may contain the better 
world within its depths." 

Means in the process. — In general, a good descriptive 
text, magazine articles, books on the Amazon, and good 
maps are needed. The pupil may infer much. It is well 
to note here the difference between assigning a lesson by 
so much of text, and by points to be worked out, which 
compel the pupil to use the text, the reference-book, and 
every other means at his command. This at one stroke 
stops rote learning by compelling the pupil to think the 
thing itself. 

Educational value of the process. — This value should be 
stated in light of the universal aim of education, and the 
universal laws by which the mind grows. The magnificent 
panorama of picture is an illuminating presence in the 
soul ; making full and rich the conscious life of the child, 
— a presence crowding out things ugly and unworthy ; an 
inner resource against the dullness and monotony of life ; 
an impulse against the temptations and allurements along 
life's pathway. To form this picture means more than a 
mere knowledge of the Amazon ; it means inner life and 
resource to the pupil. It means not only richness of 
coloring and wealth of picture as if to the eye, but sublime 
mood to the soul, from contemplating the majestic flow 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 161 

and yearly pulsation through sublime forests and inter- 
minable plains. And then, when the picture is transformed 
into a type of universal life, it is held before the pupil not 
merely as a picture but as a revelation of his own life. 
It then has truly life meaning and life potency in it. And 
further, when the pupil perceives this river as the coop- 
eration of forces external to itself, he has a form of 
thought by which he is finally to resolve all the forces 
of the world into the unity of a single force. Nothing 
brings more elation to the soul than to feel its way towards 
such unity. 

These few statements on the plan of a lesson on the 
Amazon are meant only to connect the foregoing laws with 
the individual teaching act as described in the first chapter. 
The teacher should expand this outline as formally and as 
fully as the example on the pyramid ; and more so, for it 
may now be done in light of the universal law, so far as 
discussed. Thus we have returned to the point of start- 
ing — from the individual teaching act, through the uni- 
versal law in two of its phases, to the individual act. 
There is this difference between the two individual acts ; 
in the last, the teacher may see the process of thinking 
the Amazon as a universal process ; and its educational 
value as a universal value. 

We must not fail to note here, also, the connection of 
this detailed process of thinking the Amazon with the 
universal law of method, previously stated. By that law 
the mind moves from the individual out toward the 
universal, and back to the individual, discerning at last 



162 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the universal in the individual. The foregoing illustration 
exhibits in detail the phases of movement in bringing the 
individual into unity with the universal. The teacher 
should not lose sight of the larger movement in the details 
of the process. In every step, the teacher should be 
conscious of pressing toward the universal. 

The foregoing example illustrates again the principle 
of gradation in school. The Amazon as a mere picture is 
a fit topic for primary pupils ; in its narrow circle of 
relations it is suitable for grammar grades ; still wider 
relations for the high-school pupil ; and the university 
student may exhaust his powers on what remains. 

APPLICATION II. A HEART. 

For further illustration, and to exhibit more strictly 
the law of unity in the method of thought, suppose a 
heart is to be taught. Making out at once the relations 
and steps suitable to a common-school class, the follow- 
ing appears : — 

Steps in the Process. — I. Thinking the heart as fixed, 
and under the unifying idea of purpose and means. Pur- 
pose, to circulate the blood through all parts of the body. 

1. Perceiving, or imagining, position ; judgment aid- 
ing. This position should be noted (1) with reference to 
the body as a whole, and (2) with reference to other 
organs, especially the lungs, and the veins and arteries. 
But the essential thing to note here is that the pupil must 
unify the position as above given with the primary attri- 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 163 

bute of the heart, purpose. He must think the position as 
a means to the purpose. This requires no high order of 
judgment, and may be done by a primary class. 

2. Perceiving form, aided by comparison with similar 
forms. Next, the form must be thought as means to the 
end of circulation. The fact of its being hollow easily 
connects with its use ; and if the form were anything else, 
in general, but spherical, it could not have power to force 
the blood. 

3. Perceiving size, exactly, and relatively to body and 
force required to propel the blood ; thus relating size as 
means to the heart's use. 

4. Inferring its resistance — its contractile power — 
from its size and the force required. Its rhythmical and 
automatic action described. This attribute of contractility 
should be noted as the attribute most immediate to use. 

5. Perceiving color, and noting relation to use, as indi- 
cating a certain kind of tissue. 

6. Analyzing the heart into parts. First, noting pos- 
sible bases, and then deciding on the basis in light of the 
foregoing unifying idea — purpose. On this basis, the 
pupil will arrive at a venous heart and an arterial heart, 
naming the parts from their function to hold attention to 
the basis. To name the same parts as right side and left 
side would be to miss an opportunity. These two parts 
are again divided on the same basis — as to what each 
does with the blood it receives. Why the use of the 
heart requires it to be divided into two parts and then 
each part into two parts must be considered. This is 



164 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

purely a matter of thought, and not of perception ; and 
the most complex thought yet required. 

The parts are now to be studied in order ; each under 
the attributes and parts which fit it to its function, exactly 
by the outline of the heart as a whole. 

II. The heart as changing, in its development from a 
simple pulsating sack to its permanent form. This point 
would probably be omitted by the class here supposed ; 
not because of the difficulty of the thought in itself, but 
because of the obscurity of the facts. Certainly the class 
would not be able to reach the facts by direct observation ; 
but might picture the stages by means of descriptions 
from teacher or text. If the pupil can come at the facts, 
a beautiful narration may be worked out. First, the 
whole change which the need, or purpose, of the heart 
brings to pass. Second, the stages in the development, 
each related to the purpose of the whole change and to 
every part of the change. 

III. The heart as a symbol of spiritual life. — Besides 
the use of the heart to the body it has its use, in a 
figurative way, to the mind. What this use is, and. its 
adaptation to this use, must be as carefully made out as its 
physical adaptation to its physical use. At this point the 
student should make an outline of the attributes and parts 
of the heart which make it a fit symbol of the spiritual 
heart — of all that is deepest and best in the soul ; such 
as (1) propelling the life-giving current, (2) being central 
and vital, (3) rhythmical, etc. 

This will illustrate to the reader, again, the point 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. % 165 

summed up on page 118, where it was said that " while 
every individual must be viewed as to how it is at a 
given moment and how it came to be what it is, it must be 
made to face both the material and the spiritual world." 
This last view of the heart is the one in which the mind 
of the learner most completely finds itself, identifies itself, 
with the object. 

Means to the Steps. — Such a study of the heart as above 
suggested reveals the method of thought in the heart — 
reduces it to terms of thought — and thus guides the 
teacher precisely in stimulating the pupil to create the 
idea heart. Thus the teacher is prepared to devise means 
to the steps. 

It is needless to give the means to the steps in detail, 
as the reader can readily supply them from the illustra- 
tions in the first chapter. It ought to be emphasized 
again, however, that such a study of the heart gives the 
teacher freedom and confidence in the use of means. The 
conditions of observation and the illustrations to be sup- 
plied, and the questions, directions, and suggestions arise 
at once in the teacher's mind on a consciousness of the 
mental step required. A teacher thus prepared is free 
from the text in the recitation, not having to follow 
questions at bottom of page, and to look at page to see if 
the answer is correctly given ; nor to call on pupils 
mechanically to recite from side heading in text — the 
convenient grind of a so-called topical method. Facing 
the class, free from book or other barrier between teacher 
and pupil, the teacher can command with precision and 



166 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

force the full and methodical activity of the class through- 
out the lesson. This at once awakens respect for the skill 
and power of the teacher, and a feeling of safety in his 
guidance. 

The Value of the Lesson. — Briefly as to its characteristic 
features only. 

1. Intellectual value. — As knowledge, the heart serves 
in mastering myriads of analogous objects ; it is an instru- 
ment of thought by which the mind comes into unity with 
the world of thought ; and gains its freedom through that 
unity. 

As discipline, the mind is trained to accurate, thorough, 
and methodical observation, an essential habit in coming 
into unity with the objective world. The mind is thrown 
into a universal form of activity in its effort to know this 
particular object. Especially valuable is that part of the 
exercise in relating attributes and parts to the purpose of 
the whole. This organism, while simple and definitely 
bounded, requires the same form of thought as that neces- 
sary to think the whole body, the earth, or the universe. 
Such is a universal aim which the teacher must hold in 
consciousness in giving the lesson. The teacher should be 
conscious in this lesson of helping the pupil to realize in 
himself a form of activity which is essential to the life of 
thought. How much must it add to the teacher's pride 
and joy to feel that this one universal good of life is being 
realized ! 

In thus thinking the heart the pupil is trained to follow 
the lead of the thought in the object considered ; or, 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 167 

what is the same thing, he guides his own thought, instead 
of being passive to the leading of text or teacher. He 
knows what to think, the order of thinking, and when the 
object is completely thought. It ought to be said here 
that if the teacher mechanically applies an outline to an 
object he will not train the pupil to the power of self- 
guidance and to the independence of thought required. 
The pupil must see the relations as determined by the 
object itself, and not apply a remembered outline. A 
pupil trained to self -guidance through the object can recite 
topically and continuously without constant prompting 
from the teacher, or without a dead tug of memory to 
bring up the form on the page. He cannot be thrown off 
the track by interruptions and cross questions from the 
teacher. Thus to give a pupil freedom in thought is to 
realize in him one end for which the school exists. The 
teacher has no right to present the lesson under considera- 
tion without being conscious of this phase of its universal 
value to the pupil. 

2. Emotio7ial and ethical value. — The emotions are 
quickened through the perception of the organic unity of 
the heart. Wonder is aroused in the thought of its per- 
petual activity ; and the aesthetic feeling is aroused in 
beholding the throbbing physical organ as a type of the 
throbbing spiritual organ, that other heart of man and 
of humanity. The figurative use of the heart should be 
made to stand for much. Every person feeling himself to 
be "a circulating venous-arterial Heart" in the social 
system must have a deep sense of moral obligation ; and 



168 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

feeling that within him is a central spiritual force out of 
which are the issues of life, he must be inclined to consult 
the inner oracle rather than the sirens along life's path- 
way. Incidental ethical lessons following in the natural 
movement of thought have more power than ethical 
lessons directly given. 

APPLICATION III. DIGESTION. 

Take now an example in which the changes are most 
prominent and easily studied ; as in digestion. Briefly, it 
stands thus : — 

Purpose, to convert solid to liquid food. Unity of 
thought requires the attention to rest primarily on the 
food as changing, and not on the organs by which it is 
changed. The two series of changes run parallel, but must 
be kept distinct and in this organic relation — the organs 
as causing the changes in the food. 

1. Cause of the changes, mechanical and chemical action. The 

agents of both named in general. 

2. Time required to complete the process. 

3. Place — Alimentary canal described, in general. 

4. Stages of the process. 

a. Pulverizing the food. 

(1) Purpose, (2) Place — mouth, described and related as 
means. 

b. Changing Albuminous food to a liquid. 

(1) Purpose, (2) Time, (3) Place— stomach, described and 
related as a chemical means, aided by mechanical 
action. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 169 

c. Changing Oleaginous and Sugar food to liquid. 

(1) Purpose, (2) Time, (3) Place — described with, organs 
and fluids causing the change. 

The foregoing suggests the manner of keeping the 
action of the organs which serve as means subordinate to 
the changes in the food. The transition of the food from 
one place to another should not be mingled with the 
changes in the nature of the food itself. 

APPLICATION IV. A BATTLE. 

A further illustration with an individual viewed wholly 
as changing — Battle of Concord and Lexington : — 

Purpose. — British, to secure supplies ; Americans, to 
defend. 

1. Place — Lexington, Concord, and on the road from Boston to 

Concord. (Relation to purpose ?) 

2. Time — 18th of April, 1775; from midnight till afternoon of 

19th. (Relation to purpose and condition ?) 

3. Cause — The desirability of holding the supplies. (Relation to 

purpose ?) 
' March of the British from Boston to Lexington. 

4 Parts a (Relation to main purpose ?) 

Arousing the Minute Men, simultaneous with the 
. above. 

(1) Purpose on the part of the British to reach 

point by surprise ; on the part of the 
Americans, to defeat their purpose. 

(2) Place — description of (a) route of British, (b) 

of American territory alarmed. 

(3) Cause — British, advantage via Lexington ; 

Americans, news of intended surprise. 



170 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

(4) Parts — (a) the secret preparation of the British, 

the rowing to Charlestown shore, etc.; (b) 
the ride of Revere and Dawes. 

(5) -Effects — the fight at Lexington. 

b. The battle of Lexington — treated as "a." 

c. The march to Concord, with simultaneous events 

on the part of the Americans — as " a. " 

d. The retreat — treated as " a. ' ' 

5. Effects — Defeat of British ; Americans encouraged. 

All the attributes and parts of the foregoing event are 
unified to thought under its purpose ; and unified to the 
imagination by giving the space and time boundaries of 
the whole. Unity is further secured by following strictly 
the order of changes, and by organizing each change into 
the whole. The relations o4 the whole define the whole, 
and the subordinate parts are shown in their subordinate 
relations. 

The foregoing outline contemplates fixing the battle in 
mind as a mere individual object — a picture object, having 
certain internal relations and immediate connection with 
its environment. The imagination, judgment, and the 
emotions of excitement, fear, courage, and patriotism, are 
the faculties necessary to form the individual. The pic- 
ture should be made as full and vivid as life, so that all 
the emotions will be aroused as intensely as they were in 
the colonists. The reading of " Paul Eevere's Ride " aids 
in the emotional interpretation. 

The battle thus given in its individuality is to be filled 
with as much universal content through cause and effect, 
and purpose, as the ability of the class permits. Certainly, 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 171 

they can press the preceding parts of the Revolution into 
it, and forecast something of the future. This battle will 
await a higher class for fuller meaning ; a class able to 
comprehend that here was " fired the shot heard round the 
world." 

In this example the emotions are absolutely essential to 
a knowledge of the battle. Before it is possible to under- 
stand the battle the pupil must enter into the feelings 
aroused, by means of imaginative sympathy. This fact 
cannot appear in the stiff outline, for it is the glow and 
flame arising along the whole outline. The same might 
be said of the will ; for the pupil must resolve and make 
sympathetic effort with those engaged. In short, he must 
completely indentify himself with the thought, passion, 
and resolution of the time. Here is one case in which 
there can be no question as to the pupil's ability to 
identify himself, to some extent, at least, with the object 
he studies. And in this union the educational value 
appears. Besides the value in many other ways, the pupil 
has an inner resource of life to the extent to which he has 
made the heroic life of the times his own. To the pupil 
who has fought the battle sternly it stands as an ever 
ready suggestion of heroic endeavor in behalf of truth and 
freedom. 

APPLICATION V. COMPOSITION. 

The relations involved in thinking the individual under 
its two phases of fixed and changing are the guide to the 
teacher in training the pupils to write descriptions and 



172 THE TEACHING Pfl6CESS. 

narrations, two of the four processes involved in com- 
position work. When the pupil is studying the heart or 
digestion, he may be required to embody his thoughts in 
good language form. This plan requires him to write 
under the impulse of the object, and not merely to write 
for the sake of having an essay for a stated occasion. The 
fundamental defect of the present system of teaching com- 
position is that of locating the pupil's motive in the wrong 
phase of the process of composing. His conscious effort is 
in the form. To him, to compose is to put words together 
into sentences, sentences together into paragraphs, and 
paragraphs into discourse. He aims to reach the thought 
and spirit of his discourse by attention to the form, rather 
than to secure a perfect form through the spirit. The 
pupil must be trained to write from the inside out, and 
not from the outside in. The motive in the writing must 
be a desire to communicate some idea for the sake of the 
idea, and not for the sake of the form in which the idea is 
put. Believe me, the whole matter of school composition 
would be revolutionized by causing some idea to press for 
utterance rather than to make the formal requirement for 
a composition at a fixed time, and merely to test on the 
formalities of essay writing. In the natural movement of 
studying the heart, for instance, the pupil will be under 
the necessity of formulating his thought for the sake of 
the thought ; and his work may be tested in every par- 
ticular of style. But the impulse shaping every feature of 
the essay, paragraphing, punctuation, figures of speech, 
etc., is the heart itself. Thus the teacher gets more 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 173 

thorough, and systematic study of the heart than without 
the essay ; and much better training in composition than 
can be secured by requiring the essay for the sake of the 
essay. A pupil is not being properly trained to compose 
unless he is being made conscious that paragraphs, long 
and short sentences, simple and complex ones, punctuation 
marks, etc., are all in the object about which he is writing. 
The comma is in the heart and not in the book of rules. 

Suppose pupils are studying a lead pencil, as it now is, 
and find in it relations about as follows : — 

I, As a Whole. 

1. Purpose — to write with. 

2. Position — on the table, not necessary to its use, but to give 

the mind a picture. 

3. Form — cylindrical. Eelation to use. 

r Length. ") 

4. Size 1 V Relation to use. 

[ Diameter. J 

5. Resistance — light, firm, and strong. Relation to use. 

6. Color — red, not necessary to use, but in a description aids 

the mind in picturing this pencil. 

II. As made up of Parts — basis of functions. 

1. Wood. 

f To protect the lead. 

(a) Purpose — <j To protect fingers from lead. 

[ To give proper size to hold to. 

(b) Position — outside of lead. Why ? 

(c) Form — hollow cylinder. Why ? 

(d) Size — already given, except deducting hollow. 

(e) Resistance — light, firm, and strong. Why ? 

2. Lead. 

(a) Purpose — to make the mark. 

(b) Position — inside the wood. Why ? 



174 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 



(d) Size — < > Relation to use. 

"u J 



(c) Form — cylindrical. Why ? 
C Diameter. 

L Length. 

(e) Resistance. — Friable. Relation to use. This attribute 
is the one through which the pencil's purpose is im- 
mediately realized ; the attribute that requires the 
wood, with its attributes. 

With such a study as the above, the pupil is ready to 
make a good oral discourse. He can stand and talk 
fluently, accurately, methodically, and completely. And 
completely means that he would know when he was at the 
end of what he had to say — no small merit in discourse 
makers. Suppose now the teacher wishes to drill pupils 
in the form of written discourse. To begin with, the 
paragraphs are already determined : one for the pencil as 
a whole, one subdividing it into parts, and one for the 
wood and one for the lead. These paragraphs are found 
in the pencil itself. This is a better lesson on paragraph- 
ing than to require pupils to put a given page of sentences 
into paragraphs. In this exercise there is involved the 
matter of transforming sentences — compound to complex, 
and then to simple, or the reverse. Sometimes, in books 
of composition, sentences are given to be transformed as 
an exercise in securing flexibility of language. But here 
is a better opportunity. The pupil in following the outline 
will, perhaps, have these two sentences, or similar ones : 
"The pencil is to write with. It is on the table." He 
can readily see that the second sentence states a fact too 
unimportant to have a separate existence, coordinate with 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 175 

the preceding. The fact of the pencil's position is purely 
accidental ; not aiding the pencil in its purpose, but only 
giving definiteness to the idea. Then he will revise : "The 
pencil is to write with, and is on the table." But he can 
soon be driven to, " The pencil, which is on the table, is to 
write with." And finally to, "The pencil on the table is 
to write with"; thus giving the greatest possible subordi- 
nation to the pencil's position which the structure of the 
sentence permits. This transformation is required by the 
relations in the object itself, and is not merely sleight of 
hand with words. 

Note again how variety of sentences and punctuation 
inhere in the object. After the foregoing sentence the 
pupil may have these : " It is cylindrical in form. It is 
six inches long. It is a quarter of an inch in diameter." 
This chopped-up style is not only unpleasant to the ear 
but untrue to the thing. The two sentences bearing on 
the size may be thrown together, since they state parts of 
the same relation. " The pencil is six inches long, and a 
quarter of an inch in diameter." There may be reasons 
for joining this with the preceding. Thus: "The pencil 
is cylindrical in form, and six inches long and a quarter of 
an inch in diameter." Note that the omission of the 
comma before the second and is to indicate that the two 
facts of size are more immediately related than either 
with form. The comma after the word form is in the 
pencil itself. 

Thus the pupil should be drilled, in every phase of style, 
to work from the inside out — from the spirit to the letter. 



176 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 



APPLICATION VI. READING. 



Equally serviceable are the laws of thinking the indi- 
vidual when applied to a reading lesson. A piece of 
literature is an individual, and must be studied as such. 

Suppose the lesson be " Skipper Ireson's Kide." Whit- 
tier presents the Skipper as changing, hence the selection 
is narration. The pupils are to describe Whittier's 
narration. 

1. The pupils might first be required to picture vividly 
the changes : (1) the tarring and the feathering ; (2) the 
ride up the rocky lane ; (3) the ride through Marble- 
head 5 (4) the ride in the country beyond. 

2. The purpose of all these changes is to produce in the 
skipper a feeling of chagrin and humiliation as a punish- 
ment for his hard heart in sailing off and refusing to 
rescue his fellow-townsmen from a sinking vessel because 
they bragged of their " catch " of fish. 

3. Pupils must now show how perfectly adapted were 
the means devised to produce chagrin and humiliation. To 
begin with, he was tarred and feathered ; and then drawn 
by women through the town, with such demonstrations as 
pupils have already described. 

4. Next comes the effect of the enterprise. So well 
adapted, yet it produced no humiliation. Cause of the 
failure is found in this : — 

"What to me is this noisy ride ? 
What is the shame that clothes the skin 
To the nameless horrors that live within ? 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 177 

Waking or sleeping, I see a wreck, 
And hear a cry from a reeling deck ! 
Hate me and curse me, — I only dread 
The hand of God and the face of the dead ! " 

5. Hence, we must revise the purpose as stated above. 
The women of Marblehead planned it to produce humilia- 
tion ; but Whittier's purpose, the poem's purpose, is to 
make the reader feel how much greater should be the 
horror of sin in the heart than external shame. This is 
the purpose which controls the poem. 

The foregoing is not the logical order of the analysis, 
but the chronological, the easiest order of approach for the 
class. They should now reconstruct, stating clearly the 
purpose of the poem, and then showing how each attribute 
and part furthers the purpose. The poem- is to present 
to the reader an ideal sense of sin. Not how we do feel, 
but how we should feel ; how the inner voice cries out in 
wrong doing. This feeling is thrown out by making it 
stronger than the worse external forms of shame to which 
all are extremely sensitive. 

The real change will now appear to the student to be 
the inner change from the hard heart of sin to the 
penitent heart ; and not the external series before 
sketched. The external series are subordinate, and serve 
by comparison to bring out the internal. This double 
series is usually found in a narrative piece of literature ; 
but while the student must approach the inner through the 
outer, he must face about and state the series of steps as 
an inner series, showing the relation of the external to it. 



178 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

The pupil will have no difficulty here of reaching 
universal, ideal truth — of finding himself. If it seems 
strange to say that the pupil can identify himself with a 
river, it certainly will not seem strange to say that he can 
identify himself with a poem. The poem is a bit of the 
writer's experience — nothing more ; and the student is to 
reproduce in himself the same experience. The problem 
of the teacher is how to bring the author and the pupil 
into unity by means of the poem. The process of such 
unity is method in teaching reading. 

To enforce the application of the doctrine of universal 
method to reading, one more illustration may be permitted ; 
using a selection quite different in character — Lowell's 
description of a day in June : — 

" And what is so rare as a day in June ? 

Then, if ever, come perfect days ; 
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, 

And over it softly her warm ear lays : 
Whether we look, or whether we listen, 
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten ; 
Every clod feels a stir of might, 

An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 
And, groping blindly above it for light, 

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers ; 
The flush of life may well be seen 

Thrilling back over hills and valleys ; 
The cowslip startles in meadows green, 

The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice, 
And there's never a leaf or a blade too mean 

To be some happy creature's palace ; 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 179 

The little bird sits at his door in the sun, 

Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, 
And lets his illumined being o'errun 

With the deluge of summer it receives ; 
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings, 
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings ; 
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest, — 
In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best ? ' ' 

This poem is an individual, and will be treated as 
a fixed individual, and not under the influences that 
prompted it and the steps by which it came to be. 
Hence, we are to describe Lowell's description ; since 
he is presenting the day at a given time. 

I. Purpose. — The fundamental attribute of every piece 
of literature is that of purpose. The writer sets up an 
ideal experience which he desires to produce in the reader. 
The discourse is a means the writer uses to make the ideal 
experience he sets up real in the reader. Therefore, every 
poem must be studied under one relation — that of pur- 
pose and means. After finding the purpose there must be 
noted the attributes of the poem which make it effective 
to the end sought. 

The purpose of the poem to the reader is the effect pro- 
duced on the reader. So that a pupil searches for the use 
of a poem by the process of introspection. He reads and 
finds in himself an experience. Then, by the analytic 
judgment he notes the elements of his experience — 
intellectual, emotional, volitional. Lastly, he decides 
which of these chiefly occupy consciousness ; the others 
becoming means to the primary one. This effect should 



180 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

again be narrowed to the particular thought, or feeling, 
or choice. 

All readers of the foregoing poem would testify that 
the burden of experience is emotional. It does not con- 
vey knowledge, or stimulate to some particular action. 
Therefore, as to purpose, or effect produced, this selection 
is a poem. 

This effect must be narrowed from the broad field of 
emotions to the emotion here awakened. When the reader 
has decided that the selection is adapted to produce feel- 
ing, he then must ask himself how he feels. In this case 
he will be apt to say that he feels the joy arising from 
the purity, fullness, and intensity of spiritual life. It is 
the ecstasy of the overplus of life. The heart beats full 
and strong, and life is filled to the brim. 

This is a highly idealized experience of life. It is the 
ecstasy not usually felt ; a feeling far above the ordinary 
level of life ; the elevation given by the writer's imagi- 
native sentiment wrought to the inspiration point. 

II. Means. ■ — The foregoing feeling is awakened by the 
description of a day in June. The new and more exalted 
experience of life grows out of a new and exalted experi- 
ence of the June day. The same feeling in a mild degree 
is awakened by an actual June day ; but the feeling here 
is so heightened as to make it a new experience. The 
poem makes us feel as we ought to feel in a day in June. 
This new feeling is produced by a new conception of the 
June day. This new conception is the most important means 
to the author's purpose. Let us analyze the conception. 



THINKING THE INDIVIDUAL. 181 

1. Lowell gives but one attribute of the June clay, its 
purpose, perfect adaptation to its work — expressed in 
the first four lines. Note the words "rare," "perfect," 
"in tune." The purpose of a day is to bring forth life. 
It is perfect in proportion as it does this. It is " in tune " 
if it makes the music of life. This is the beauty of the 
day which the poem brings out. So far we have nothing 
but a common view of the day. Closer reading shows 
that Lowell makes his day not only a power unto physical 
life, but unto spiritual life. He seeks to make the reader 
feel the power of the day unto righteousness. This 
attribute of the day organizes his description. This day 
has another use than to make corn grow. 

2. Lowell makes the reader feel the power of the day 
by presenting it as a cause producing unusual effect on 
a wide range of typical objects. For instance: — 

a. Causes the clod to feel a stir of might ; to reach and 
tower ; grope for light, and climb to a soul. The day has 
the power to give human attributes to a clod. In this 
way the reader is made to feel a stir of might ; to reach 
and tower ; and to climb to a soul. 

b. Causes life to flush and thrill over hills and 
valleys. Only human life can do this — not the vege- 
table life which he pictures as reappearing. Thus the 
reader is made to experience the soul's thrill of quickened 
life. 

c. Causes cowslip to startle; a sudden nervous excite- 
ment — a delight from the sudden influx of life. The 
cowslip cannot startle, but the reader can. 



182 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

d. Causes the buttercup to catch the sun in its chalice ; 
a conscious effort not possible to the buttercup, but to 
man. The soul reaches out after the very source of life. 

And so through the poem it will be found that the 
author brings out the power of the day unto life, by show- 
ing its effects on various objects — effects manifested in 
actions. The author uses purpose, cause and effect, and 
action ; action in the form of self -activity. 

It has been suggested that the new and exalted feeling 
awakened by the poem is accomplished by means of the 
author's new and exalted conception, which chiefly consti- 
tutes his description. The chief thing which makes this 
description adequate to its purpose is that of transforming 
the ordinary power of the day unto physical life, making 
the characteristic figure of the poem personification. 

3. Subordinate to the foregoing, and as a means to it, 
Lowell presents a panorama of landscape which with its 
color and variety delights the eye and ear, as, the fresh 
appearance of life over hills and valleys ; life murmuring 
and glistening ; the little bird singing at his door in the 
sun, "atilt like a blossom among the leaves"; leaves and 
blades, as happy creatures' palaces, etc., — all of the mere 
picture side of the day. 

4. Under sound comes the music of the poem — - 
euphony, harmony, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, and bal- 
anced sentences. 

It is not the purpose here to analyze the poem further 
than to show that the analysis falls into the universal 
thought movement. 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 183 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 

The Two Phases of the Process. — The distinction be- 
tween the individual and the general was drawn on pages 
109 to 114. The distinction is not in the subject-matter, 
but in the view taken. In one, the individual in its own 
organic constitution ; in the other, as to its common 
nature, common origin, with other individuals. Therefore 
the discussion of the general does not leave out of sight 
the individual ; but gives special emphasis to one relation 
of it — its general or universal nature. The general is not 
an abstraction : but is a general only through individuals. 

As before stated, the individual is the beginning and 
the end of knowledge. Dewey says, "What is actually 
known is always a combination of the universal and the 
particular ; of law and fact ; in other words, an individual. 
The individual known is becoming constantly a richer 
object of knowledge, by virtue of the two processes of 
universalization and definition. The individual known is 
always becoming more universal, because it is being identi- 
fied with other individuals, under some common relation 
or idea. It is becoming more definite, for these various 
relations which are thus recognized are taken into it, and 
become part of its content ; they enlarge its significance 
and serve to distinguish it. A completely universalized or 
related individual, which is at the same time perfectly 
definite or distinct in all its relations, is, therefore, the 
end of knowledge. " 



184 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

A part of what is implied in the above applies to the 
preceding treatment of the individual, in pushing it out 
into its infinite organic relations. But it serves here to 
emphasize the thought that while the general notion, or 
class, is proposed for treatment, it is still the individual 
in a new relation ; not this time, however, the individual 
as having parts which cooperate, or as being a part coop- 
erating with other individuals, but the individual as to its 
common idea, origin, nature, with other individuals. 

As there are two phases of thinking the individual — 
as fixed and as changing — so there are two phases of 
thinking the general, corresponding closely to the two 
preceding; and depending, also, on the way the subject is 
viewed. The general idea is formed from individuals by a 
process of judgment ; and it may be applied to the in- 
dividuals from which it A\ r as derived by another form of 
the same process. The concept considered as to the 
process of its formation, gives rise to a distinct process of 
thought called Exposition. The concept considered in the 
process of its application to actually existing things gives 
rise to a process of thought called Argumentation. 

We form the general ideas red and men from red objects 
and from this and that man. These general ideas exist as 
such only in the mind that forms them. These general 
ideas may now be applied to the world of reality, and we 
find a red object and this and that man. The decision 
that a given general notion is found in a given individual, 
or individuals, is the subject-matter of argumentation ; 
while the general notion in itself is the subject-matter of 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 185 

exposition. The general idea is formed from the world as 
presented in observation, through the processes of com- 
parison and contrast, and abstraction and generalization. 
How it is formed constitutes the process of exposition. 
This general notion sprang from the objective world of 
reality by a process of thought, and tends to return through 
another process of thought to do service in this same 
world of reality. A complete study of a general idea 
requires it to pass through both these movements of 
thought. If the teacher is treating the general idea Free 
Trade, he must first develop the notion Free Trade, and 
then apply the notion to practical life. It takes both 
views to constitute a knowledge of Free Trade. 

Kecalling now the universal law of mental movement, 
it will be readily observed that the two foregoing processes 
are only phases of that universal movement. The mind 
moves from the individual to the universal and back to 
the individual. Exposition seeks the universal ; argu- 
mentation returns with it to the individual. 

Forming the General Notion. 

The Two Phases of the Process. — It has already been 
observed that a general idea, to be general, must contain 
individuals. The general must be general to something. 
Every exposition, therefore, is the process of thinking the 
general in unity with the individual. Emphasizing one of 
these relations, the common, forms what is known as the 
Content of the general idea ; emphasizing the other, the 
individual, forms the Extent of the general idea. 



186 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

The content of a general idea is the sum of attributes 
common to a number of individuals. The content of the 
class quadruped is the sum of the attributes, sensation, 
voluntary motion, vertebral structure, peculiar nervous 
and circulatory systems, quadrupedal, and so on, including 
whatever else may be found in each animal of that class. 
This content is the sum of the common attributes of a 
number of objects — such attributes in any object as may 
be found in every other of the class. The mind, in think- 
ing the content of a class, must, at the same time, think 
the individuals in which the content finds its concrete 
being — must think the extent of the class. The extent of 
a class is the number of individuals in which the content 
is found. The content of the class red apple is the sum of 
the common attributes ; the extent is the sum of the indi- 
viduals in the class. 

The content of a class determines the extent. One 
bears an inverse ratio to the other. If the class animal 
have for its content the sum of the two attributes, sensa- 
tion and voluntary motion, and a third be added, warm 
blooded, thus increasing the content, the extent is decreased 
by dropping from the idea the cold blooded animals. 
With each addition of a new attribute to the content, 
there is a subtraction from its extent — a subtraction of 
the number not having the attribute added. 

This brings us to the two phases of thinking necessary 
to form a general idea ; one, that of thinking the content ; 
the other, the extent. The first process is known as 
Definition ; the second, as Division. 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 187 

THINKING THE CONTENT OF A CLASS. 

Developing definitions is so prominent a part of the 
teacher's work that the method of it deserves careful 
attention. Definition is not, in its essential nature, a 
formal word process ; but a mental process of conceiving 
the content of a class of objects. 

This definition of Definition becomes more explicit by 
observing that the content of a general idea is constituted 
of two relations — the universal and the particular, or its 
likeness to and difference from other ideas. 

The class oak tree has a common nature with all trees ; 
through them with organic life ; and through organic 
objects with all being. If the attributes which the oak 
tree has in common with trees, or with the larger group 
of organic objects, or with the universe of objects, be 
taken away, the oak is destroyed. Also, if that which 
separates the oak tree from the class tree be taken away, 
the oak is destroyed. The class oak cannot exist except 
through the union of both phases of this truth. It is the 
life and being of the class oak tree. Again, imagine 
before us all apples. These apples have attributes in 
common. Some of the common attributes are peculiar to 
apples alone, and the others are found in stones, in 
oranges, in birds, in man, in everything — are universal. 
To think away either those that are common and peculiar, 
or those that are common and universal, is to destroy the 
thought of apples. The union of the common, particular 
attributes with the common, universal attributes constitutes 
the nature of apples. 



183 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Therefore, the fundamental truth in any class of things 
is the truth common to them and to the larger class of 
which they are a part, plus the truth common to them 
alone, and which permanently distinguishes them from 
the class of things to which they belong. The first phase 
of the truth maintains the connection of the class with 
universal being; the second, the particular existence of 
the class to some definite end. 

Since definition is to exhibit the content of an idea, 
and since this content is the union of the two relations 
of particular and universal, definition may be explicitly 
defined as the 'process of forming a conception of the uni- 
versal and the particular nature of an idea. That is, a 
definition is a process of forming a conception of the 
essential nature of the idea under discussion. Hence 
their necessity and general use. 

Therefore, method in definition is the mental process of 
conceiving in unity the particular and universal nature of a 
general idea. 

The particular element unifies the individuals, and at 
the same time separates them from all other individuals ; 
while the universal unifies the individuals, and, at the 
same time, connects the group unified with the universe 
out of which the individuals spring. 

Steps and Laws in the Process. — (1) Since the general 
is based on the individual, the first step in the process is 
that of Observation ; or rather, observation is continued 
through as a condition of the other processes ; (2) Com- 
parison and Contrast of individuals ; (3) Abstraction, in 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 189 

fixing the attention on what is common ; (4) Generaliza- 
tion, in applying the common element abstracted to the 
individuals in order to unify them. 

These activities are necessarily involved in grasping the 
two phases of content. Using the noun to illustrate, let 
us suppose the student is already supplied with some more 
comprehensive idea, that of word, as expressing an idea. 
Individual words, including nouns and other words, must 
be observed, compared, and contrasted until the pupil finds 
the likeness between the class studied and all other words; 
namely, that all express ideas ; and the difference between 
the words studied and all other words ; namely, that they 
name objects. This last difference and the former like- 
ness are both common to all nouns, binding them into the 
unity of the class and the class into the unity of all words, 
and the universe. 

The last generalization may be stated as follows : A noun 
is a substantive which expresses its object by naming it. 

It should be observed that the universal truth is 
formally presented in definition by referring the class to 
be defined to a known larger class of which it is a part. 
Whenever an object or class is said to be in a larger class, 
however small the larger class, a connection is established 
with the universe. To say that a noun is a substantive is 
to say that it is the arbitrary expression of an object, and 
to say this is to say that it is the arbitrary expression of 
an idea ; which further implies that it, at least, is the 
expression of an idea. Xow this last fact is true of every 
object in the universe. All express thought. Nothing 



190 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

can be correctly defined without connecting it with the 
sun, moon, and stars ; and the definitions which have 
power to the student are those in which he can feel 
his way "back to, become conscious of, the universal 
element. This reference of an idea to a larger whole 
is only a concise and an abbreviated form of giving the 
universal. 

It follows from what has been said that the larger class 
to which reference is made must be a known class, and 
such as will give the clearest and fullest notion of the 
class defined. Eeference is made to the known class to 
abbreviate the process ; and if this class need explanation 
the purpose is defeated. For the same reason, the class to 
which reference is made should have the greatest content, 
and, therefore, the least extent of any class to which 
reference can be made. Reference is made to the larger 
class to save enumerating and explaining common attri- 
butes of the class defined ; and the greater the number 
found in the larger class the greater is the economy. For 
instance, in defining a pronoun it may be referred to the 
class words, or to the smaller class substantives. The 
choice will be determined, first, by which is better known ; 
second, by which has the greater content. If the substan- 
tive has been previously defined, it must be selected ; 
because it contains one more attribute in common with the 
noun than does the class words. Saying that a noun is a 
word is saying only that it expresses an idea ; but saying 
that it is a substantive is saying that it expresses an 
idea of an object. 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 191 

Thus we arrive at the first law for making a defini- 
tion : Present the universal nature of the class by referring 
it to the smallest knoivn class of ivhich it is a part. 

The next step in the formal definition is the statement 
of the attribute which gives the class its separate being. 
In stating this attribute, two points must be observed. 
Since the attribute now to be stated is that which 
separates the class from all other objects, care must be 
taken that the common attribute is not found in any other 
object 5 that is, that the definition be not too broad. The 
second fact is, that since the attribute is not only particu- 
lar but common, care must be taken that it include all the 
objects over which the generalization extends ; that is, that 
it be not too narrow, and thus divide the class which it 
was intended to unify. 

But the law worthy of the most special attention in 
giving the particular mark of the class defined is that of 
unity. If an attribute be given which belongs only to a 
part of the individuals, and then a second be given to 
include some of the remainder, and another to include 
what is left, three classes are given instead of one. For 
instance, "A verb is a word that expresses action, state, or 
being." Action does not belong to all verbs ; neither does 
state, nor being. If we should take all verbs in the 
language and place them before us as the definition 
requires, we should have three groups instead of one. 
The attribute must unify ; and to do this it must belong 
to every verb in the language. The violation of unity is, 
perhaps, the most common and fundamental error in mak- 



192 THE TEACHING PKOCESS. 

ing definitions. It fosters loose and superficial habits of 
thought, and misses the truth sought. 

Thus we arrive at the second law for making a 
definition : State the one common, particular attribute of 
the class, — that which unifies all the individuals of the 
class and at the same time separates them from all 
others. 

Educational Value of Definition. — Method in definition 
has been defined as the process of thinking individuals 
into unity ; or the process of forming the content of a 
general idea. This was seen to involve the relations of 
particular and universal — the particular, in unifying, dis- 
tinguishes the class from others ; while the universal, in 
unifying, connects the class defined with others. By 
reference again to the ultimate law of method, and the 
ultimate problem of thought, definition will appear in its 
true light, and at its true value. It is a process of think- 
ing which brings into unity the individual and universal — 
the problem of all thought, and which brings the learner 
into unity with the world of thought, the end of all learn- 
ing. This is its primary educational value. 

The power to discern unity in the midst of diversity ; 
to detect essential likenesses amidst engrossing and non- 
essential differences ; to find the enduring under the mask 
of obtruding, accidental, and superficial attributes, is a 
fundamental characteristic of every well-trained mind. To 
define is not simply to unify individuals ; but, in unifying, 
to find their essential nature. The common nature in 
which they are unified is the essential nature of each 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 193 

individual. Hence the habit of thinking, in the form of 
definition is the habit of thinking the true nature of 
things; which is the primary function of mind. 

This unifying act of mind is complex ; and has a richer 
significance in training than at first appears. It requires 
accurate, thorough, and methodical observation ; precise 
discrimination through comparison and contrast ; abstrac- 
tion of that which abides after differences have been 
canceled ; and generalization, by holding in mind the 
differences of individuals while binding them into the 
unity of their common nature. So that while training to 
correct habits of definition, the teacher is carrying forward 
a large number of related habits. Too much cannot be 
said, therefore, by way of urging the teacher to train the 
student in the power of logical definition ; since it is a 
form of activity by which he comes into unity with the 
world of thought. 

Definitions are usually treated as mere formal state- 
ments to be recited and lodged away in memory, rather 
than thought processes in fundamental forms of mental 
activity. That a student have a correct definition of a 
fraction is itself of little consequence ; but that, in making 
such a definition, he has gained new power over the 
process of defining is vital to his education ; and, also, 
essential to the full truth in the particular thing defined. 

To reap the best results, the formal statement of a 
definition should not be made until the student has had a 
full experience of all the subordinate processes on which 
the definition is based. In some cases, days, or even 



194 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

weeks, should be spent in observing, comparing and con- 
trasting, abstracting, and generalizing, before any effort is 
made to formulate a definition. The formal definition of 
an infinitive is the last step in the process and not the 
first, as usually given. A definition made in this way, 
when asked for in reproduction, will not be remembered 
as a form of words ; but the entire experience in making 
the definition will, in brief, be repeated. Definitions 
made in this way cannot be forgotten ; or, if forgotten, 
may be reconstructed on a moment's notice. 

THINKING THE EXTENT OF A CLASS. 

Definition is the process of thinking diversity into 
unity ; division is the process of thinking unity into 
diversity. In definition, the mental movement is from 
the individuals toward the general; in division, from the 
general towards the individuals. The first is the "upward 
way " of knowing ; the second, the " downward way " ; 
using Plato's words. Each process is necessary to the full 
meaning of the other ; and the two constitute the method 
in every scientific classification ; the one setting forth the 
content of the class, and the other, the extent. Definition 
sets forth the unity of the noun by giving its content ; 
connecting it at the same time with the other parts of 
speech. Division separates this class into the kinds ; as 
concrete and abstract nouns ; uniting at the same time the 
two classes into the class noun. These may again be sub- 
divided into others ; and the process thus continued till 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 195 

individuals are reached ; connecting at each subdivision the 
parts into the whole subdivided. By these two movements, 
we arrive at an organic, unified conception of the noun. 

It should be observed that each division has implicit 
in it a new definition ; while each definition involves a 
division. The two are complementary phases of the same 
process. The distinction arises in a difference of emphasis 
by the attention. In definition, the emphasis is given to 
the unity of the parts ; in division, to the parts in unity. 
The mind cannot think a class without the common con- 
tent which unifies, and the parts which are unified ; so 
that definition always implies division, and division, defi- 
nition. When the noun is defined, it must, in its unifica- 
tion, be separated from other parts of speech ; and at the 
same time connected with them ; and when the noun is 
divided into concrete and abstract, the unifying attribute 
of each class must be given, along with the common attri- 
bute which binds the two classes into the noun. A defini- 
tion of each of these must state the common attribute 
recognized in the division ; and at the same time unify 
the two in the noun by the attribute used in the division. 
Thus Definition and Division are not two things, but 
organic phases of the same mental process. 

Steps and Laws in the Process. — From the nature of 
division, its laws and processes are readily ascertained. 
The steps are practically the same as in definition. The 
fundamental law requires that the unity of the class be 
maintained in the process of division. This means that 
each sub-class be thought into its own unity, at the same 



196 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

time that all the sub-classes are thought into the unity of 
the whole. It will be recalled that in definition the com- 
mon attribute in which the class was unified had two 
phases, the particular and the universal. The same fact 
appears in division. The sub-classes must be unified in 
the whole by some attribute which must extend, at least, 
to all the individuals of all the sub-classes, while each 
sub-class has its own particular unifying attribute. The 
unifying attribute of each part must be some phase of the 
unifying attribute of the whole class, in order that the 
sub-classes be united in the class. The individuals in the 
class noun are unified in the fact that all express objects. 
Some phase of this fact must serve to unite the parts of 
the class, and thus to divide it. The basis of both separa- 
tion and division is that of expression. This fact unifies 
the parts of the class in the whole. Some nouns are found 
to express abstract objects, and some concrete . Each of 
these sub-classes is unified on the same basis — expression. 
It is illogical in thought and impossible in fact to unify 
one sub-class on one basis and another on another basis. 
Make the trial of putting the class apples in bunches ; the 
apples in one bunch being alike in color ; of another, in 
taste ; of another, in size, etc. ; and it will readily appear 
why it cannot be done in thought. Thus try to place on 
the table in groups actual nouns ; the nouns in one group 
being alike in that they express concrete objects ; in an- 
other, in that they have two syllables, etc. This will make 
clear what is meant by securing unity in each of the sub- 
classes respectively, and of all the sub-classes in the whole. 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 197 

It is a fine exercise, which should be often repeated, for 
the student to test the unity of his division by placing 
before him, in imagination at least, the actual objects 
being classified. This will train him in thought to be true 
to the relation among things. 

The first step, therefore, in securing unity in division is 
to select some fundamental basis of division, as already 
determined by the definition of the class to be subdivided. 
The second is to unify each sub-class on the one basis 
selected. 

As before stated, the attribute of expression is the 
unifying attribute of the noun, as set forth by its defi- 
nition : A noun is a word that names an object. This 
essential fact of the class must be carried through as the 
basis of division and unity among the sub-classes. In 
expression, nouns differ as to the kind of objects ex- 
pressed, — some express concrete objects, giving the class 
concrete nouns ; and some, abstract objects, giving rise to 
abstract nouns. The concrete nouns again differ in ex- 
pression as to the kind of concrete objects expressed; some 
expressing individuals ; some classes ; some collections ; 
and some, masses ; giving rise to proper nouns, class 
nouns, collective nouns, and mass nouns. The abstract 
nouns differ in expression as to the kind of abstract object 
expressed ; some expressing qualities, some actions, some 
conditions, and some relations ; giving rise to classes of 
nouns of the same names. 

Educational Value of Division. — One mark of every 
well-trained mind is the habit of reducing a class into 



198 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

a system of logical subdivisions. This requires accuracy, 
thoroughness, method, and unity in the mental process. 
For the sake of the discipline which the mind gains by 
fitting its thought into the system of things, the student 
must be held rigidly to the law of unity in logical sub- 
division. As soon as possible he should be made conscious 
of the law, that he may guide his own processes. He 
should never be permitted to make loose systems of 
classes ; for in so doing he is becoming a slave to slovenly 
habits of thought. The practice of the teacher is sadly at 
fault at this point. Any sort of loose jumble of parts is 
tolerated. The pupil copies the classes given in the text 
without concern as to the process by which they are con- 
stituted. Whether the outline is right or wrong matters 
little ; the error is in the passive reception of it. The 
pupil should either construct his own outline, or test the 
one given so as to make it his own. It is not the fact of 
having the outline, but the fact of performing the process 
by which the outline is produced that gives it value. The 
thing needed is the form of mental activity to which the 
mind is trained — a form essential to unity with the 
world's thought. 

THE PROCESSES MOVING IN UNITY. 

Let us now observe the two processes of definition and 
division moving in unity, the better to note their method 
and significance. Suppose the student has risen to the 
point in his grammar work where he is to treat system- 
atically Parts of Speech. He has analyzed sentences until 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 199 

arriving at the conclusion that the organic parts of the 
sentence are words, phrases, and clauses. He has now 
the idea of words as Parts of Speech, i.e., of words as 
expressing ideas organized in a thought. 

Let us suppose then that the pupil has before him the 
multitude of words in the language, bound together by the 
one attribute of expressing organic parts of a thought. 
This conception, reached by a long course of sentence 
analysis, is his starting point in studying parts of speech. 
Prepared with this one conception, he is to begin his study 
with the multitude of individual words as found in sen- 
tences before him. With these individual words he begins, 
and with them, too, he closes — from individuals to indi- 
viduals by successive alternations of definitions and di- 
visions, based on comparison and contrast of individual 
words. 

Having defined parts of speech from his experience with 
words in analyzing sentences, his next step is to subdivide 
them. The definition fixed the attention on the common 
attribute of the class. This common attribute is the basis 
on which the division is to be made. At the same time 
the student defines he establishes the basis for his sub- 
division. The common attribute is that of expressing the 
organic elements of a thought. The difference must be 
found in the expression of the organic elements. The 
pupil now begins a new course of observation and com- 
parison and contrast to find this time the differences which 
may coexist with the likeness expressed in the definition. 
The differences are the new likenesses binding into unity 



200 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the sub-classes. The pupil will readily note the broad 
distinction between those words which express ideas in 
the thought and those which express relations between the 
ideas — idea words and relation words. This is the funda- 
mental distinction, for thought consists of ideas in relation. 
This division implies the definition of idea word and rela- 
tion word, and these are readily formulated by the student. 
For brevity of illustration, let relation words be dropped. 
Next comes the subdivision of idea words. Again the 
student with sentences before him compares and contrasts 
idea words to find the broadest distinction running through 
them. The basis of division is the attribute expressed in 
the definition ; the attribute which unifies the class idea- 
words must itself be the dividing principle. The likeness 
is the expression of ideas ; the difference must be found 
in the expression of ideas. A few days' search with 
careful discrimination will reveal to the pupil the next 
broadest distinction among parts of speech — the expres- 
sion of objects, or those ideas which may serve as the 
subjects of thought ; and the expression of attributes, or 
those ideas which serve as predicates of thought. At the 
same time this distinction is being discovered, the new 
likeness arises in mind ; the difference between attributive 
words and substantive words cannot be discovered without 
discovering at the same time the likeness among attribu- 
tive words and substantive words. Hence the develop- 
ment of the division of the larger class is the development 
of the definitions of each of the classes made by the 
subdivision. 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 201 

Again for brevity let substantives be dropped. The 
pupil now being supplied with sentences containing all 
kinds of attributive words, is directed, suppose for the 
first lesson, to write out the likenesses and differences be- 
tween the following words in the sentence, " The timely 
suggestion was kindly received" : timely and kindly ; 
timely and was received • kindly and ivas received. In class 
he reads the result of his thinking ; and many others are 
compared and contrasted orally. The process is continued 
a few days, till all possible varieties of attributive words 
have been included. These conclusions will force them- 
selves on the pupil : Some attributive words express 
attributes of objects ; some express attributes of objects 
and assert the attribute of the object ; others express 
attributes of attributes, or express attributes of objects 
indirectly ; while the first mentioned express attributes 
of objects directly. The names adjective, adverb, and 
attributive verb now being given, the pupil will properly 
define each class. 

Following now only the adjective, the pupil, supplied 
with all varieties in sentences, is by study as before to 
discover the broadest distinction ; that between predicate 
and modifying adjective ; the first universalizing its ob- 
ject, and the second particularizing it. To say that this 
paper is white is to universalize it by connecting it with 
all white things ; to say white paper is to particularize it, 
separate it from other paper. Following out modifying 
adjectives by the same method of discovery, the many 
subtle ways in which modifications are made must be 



202 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

noted. The most fundamental is that in which the modi- 
fication is made in the content only or in the extent — 
descriptive and limiting adjectives. Limiting adjectives 
make their limitations in various ways ; as, ten horses, 
and white horses. The attribute ten is not found in each 
horse but in the group taken as a whole ; but the attribute 
white is found in each horse ; and limits by classifying, 
as the other limits by quantifying. 

Similarly moving on all the lines as hinted here, a few 
stages bring the student to individual words, such as 
I, London, bright, etc.; the same words with which he 
began his search. Then what does this movement in a 
circle signify ? It means primarily that the words have a 
richer content. At each of the five or six stages of defini- 
tion and division an attribute is added to each word, 
giving a meaning five or six times as full as at the outset. 
In this process, too, the words are universalized and 
definitely individualized ; which is the end of knowledge. 
The pupil has descended from the universal truth that ail 
objects express ideas, to words as arbitrary symbols ex- 
pressing ideas ; down to words expressing ideas, in a 
restricted sense, and relations ; and so on, carrying the 
universal meaning downward with every division. And in 
every definition the individual is thrown back on the uni- 
versal. Thus when the individual is reached at the end of 
the process, it is completely universalized. And, too, it is 
definitely individualized, for at each successive division 
narrower attributes were given ; and this continued till 
the division reached the individual word. Definition, also, 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 203 

enforces the individualizing attributes of the object ; for 
every definition, as already observed, states both the partic- 
ular and the universal attributes of the object. As the 
successive definitions defined successively smaller classes 
there comes a point at last at which the strictly indi- 
vidualizing attribute must be stated. Such then is the 
significance of this double movement, making perfectly 
distinct and universal the individual. 

From another point of view, words become organized 
and systemized into knowledge. The process brings into 
view the greatest possible variety in the subject matter ; 
but at the same time,, it brings it into the closest unity. 
The greater the diversity in unity the richer, fuller, and 
more accurate the knowledge. The common attributes of 
the objects studied must be brought out ; but with them 
there must be developed the greatest possible diversity. 

Thus again we return through the special laws of 
Definition and Division to the universal law of method. 

EXPOSITION OF IDEAL TRUTH. 

So far in the discussion reference has been had to 
matter-of-fact truth ; truth conceived by the logical pro- 
cesses of the judgment — observation, comparison and 
contrast, and generalization ; generalization first to the 
extent of observation, and second beyond observation by 
means of induction. In conceiving ideal truth the creative 
imagination takes the place of the logical judgment, con- 
verting the real into the ideal. 



204 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

In matter-of-fact truth the mind strives to adjust itself 
accurately to the external object ; in ideal truth the mind 
constructs the object according to the inner law of the 
mind itself. The merit of a scientific treatment is the 
accuracy and faithfulness with which the mind conforms 
to the truth as it actually exists ; but in a poetic treat- 
ment the merit consists in the perfection with which the 
ideal is illuminated where only dimly shadowed forth in 
the real. The imagination, in its passion for the perfect, 
penetrates the object and satisfies itself by adding, sub- 
tracting, and rearranging the elements until it contemplates 
the perfect. The mind craves to behold an ideal river, 
mountain, landscape, or character ; and not finding them, 
makes them according to its own type. 

When Wordsworth says that the sunshine is a glorious 
birth, he does not speak the truth of the scientific 
judgment concerning sunshine, but of how the mind 
in an idealized and exalted mood would have it. Long- 
fellow takes the same liberty with daybreak in the 
following : — 

A wind came up out of the sea, 

And said, " mists, make room for me." 

It hailed the ships, and cried, " Sail on, 

Ye mariners, the night is gone." 

And hurried landward far away, 

Crying, " Awake ! it is the day." 

It said unto the forest, ' ' Shout ! 

Hang all your leafy banners out ! ' ' 

It touched the wood-bird's folded wing, 

And said, " bird, awake and sing." 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 205 

And o'er the farms, " chanticleer, 
Your clarion blow; the day is near." 
It whispered to the fields of corn, 
" Bow down, and hail the coming morn." 
It shouted through the belfry-tower, 
"Awake, bell ! proclaim the hour." 
It crossed the churchyard with a sigh, 
And said, "Not yet ! in quiet lie." 

This daybreak is in the mind, discerned only by the 
inner eye, and cannot be discovered by the onter organ. 
The wind does not go forth and hail the ships, and call 
upon the forest to shout and wave its banners in joy at 
the coming day ; does not tonch the wood-bird's folded 
wing to call forth a morning song ; nor command the 
corn to bow down in worship in honor of the approaching 
sovereign. But the mind, born into new life, thus goes 
forth ; shouts and sings ; bows down and hails with 
reverence the advent of the coming day. The imagination 
creates a daybreak to suit its own ideal way of feeling 
about it ; a more exalted feeling than accompanies our 
ordinary experience. 

This ideal truth falls within the scope of human life ; 
and is further narrowed in being what the soul aspires 
to, rather than what it has attained. The ideal is the 
soul's consciousness of its possibilities, and is thus the 
measure of what man may attain, and what he strives 
to attain ; but it is to him not a matter of fact, but only 
of idea. History and literature express the two sides of 
human life — the real and the ideal. History reveals the 
struggle of the race to attain its ideal ; literature sets up 



206 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

in advance the goal to which the race aspires, and urges 
the reader to higher and nobler attainment. 

The logical processes of exposition deal with all kinds 
of general truth; but the ideal truth of human life has 
also the special province of fine art ; and, so far as our 
purpose here goes, it falls to reading and literature studies. 
The author of a poem or a novel exhibits the ideal working 
of some law of human life. It is universal truth he seeks ; 
something fundamental and essential in life ; but the 
method is quite different from the logical method of expo- 
sition. Instead of the processes of the judgment we have 
the imagination creating the truth to be set forth, and 
also the concrete individual in which the truth is exhibited. 
In the logical process there is generalization from indi- 
viduals ; some general truth is abstracted ; but in the 
poetic process there is no abstracting ; there is concreting. 
The ideal, or type, arises first in the mind, and a single 
individual is created to embody it. In the other case, 
individuals exist first, and the type is sought by the 
processes of judgment. The general truth in a piece of 
literature is adequately embodied in a single object. We 
have here the immediate unity of the individual and 
universal. The individual must be adequate to the 
universal ; there must be no conflict between the two. 
Everywhere the universal strives to realize itself in the 
individual ; this is its nature ; but it becomes distorted in 
the process. The imagination creates the object so as to 
give the universal its freedom. The universal idea patriot- 
ism is compressed when found in individual men; but 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 207 

the poet portrays a man who gives patriotism free scope. 
Charity is a universal law of human spirit — its universal 
and essential nature ; but as we find it in this person and 
in that it is cramped in a narrow mind or dissolved in 
selfishness. But Lowell gives us a type in the " Vision of 
Sir Launfal " through which universal charity flows without 
obstruction. This is the harmony between the individual 
and the universal, between the sense and the reason, 
which gives rise to the aesthetic feeling. We pronounce 
a thing beautiful on feeling that the idea in it has free 
manifestation. The problem for the one who proposes 
this method of setting forth universal truth is to present 
to the senses or to the imagination an individual which 
expresses freely the idea sought. In architecture, sculp- 
ture, and painting, the individual is presented to the 
senses ; in music and literature to the imagination, thus 
freeing the individual from the grossness of matter. 

This brief statement gives the key to reading and litera- 
ture work, in showing that the pupil's attention must 
move along three fundamental lines : — 

1. He must search out, state, and explain the ideal 
content in terms of human life ; 

2. Must form fully and vividly the image through which 
the universal shines forth ; 

3. Must show wherein the individual pictured is in 
harmony with the universal idea. 

The reading lesson was touched upon in treating the 
individual, since a piece of discourse is an individual. 
But its true nature now appears much more fully ; for 



208 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

every reading lesson, being a piece of literature, expresses 
some universal truth of life in the form of some individual 
object. A brief application of the foregoing doctrine to a 
reading lesson will now show the deeper method of treat- 
ment. Suppose the lesson to be on — 

EXCELSIOR. 

The shades of night were falling fast, 
As through an Alpine village passed 
A youth who bore, 'mid snow and ice, 
A banner with the strange device, 

Excelsior ! 

His brow was sad ; his eye beneath 
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath, 
And like a silver clarion rung 
The accents of that unknown tongue, 
Excelsior ! 

In happy homes he saw the light 

Of householcLfires gleam warm and bright ; 

Above, the spectral glaciers shone, 

And from his lips escaped a groan, 

Excelsior ! 

"Try not the Pass ! " the old man said ; 
' ' Dark lowers the tempest overhead, 

The roaring torrent is deep and wide ! ' ' 

And loud that clarion voice replied, 
Excelsior ! 

" stay," the maiden said, " and rest 
Thy weary head upon this breast ! " 
A tear stood in his bright blue eye, 
But still he answered with a sigh, 
Excelsior ! 



THINKING THE GENEBAL. 209 

"Beware the pinetree's withered branch ! 
Beware the awful avalanche ! ' ' 
This was the peasant's last Good-night, 
A voice replied, far up the height, 

Excelsior ! 

At break of day, as heavenward 
The pious monks of Saint Bernard 
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer, 
A voice cried through the startled air, 
Excelsior ! 

A traveller, by the faithful hound, 
Half-buried in the snow was found, 
Still grasping in his hand of ice 
That banner with the strange device, 
Excelsior ! 

There in the twilight cold and gray, 
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay, 
And from the sky, serene and far, 
A voice fell, like a falling star, 
Excelsior ! 

We have seen that pupils must take three steps : (1) 
picture the individual ; (2) conceive the universal — the 
theme ; (3) note the fitness of the individual to body forth 
the universal. 

1. Suppose that pupils be required to draw, in clear 
outline and in vivid colors, the picture here presented. 
They must note the unity of the picture in the physical 
act of the youth : it is the picture of a physical act of 
climbing the Alps at a given time under insurmountable 
difficulties — the darkness, the storm, the spectral glacier, 



210 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the avalanche,, the tempest, the roaring torrent ; and 
against special allurements of the gleaming household 
fires and the maiden' s invitation to stay and rest. The 
banner must be noted, the earnest brow, the flashing eye, 
the clarion voice with its constant cry of " excelsior " in 
spite of allurements and dangers. The pupils must see 
in this physical act a daring and hopeless attempt, yet 
unwavering even unto death. 

2. Next, let the pupils be pressed for the significance 
of the picture ; whether it is given for the sake of the 
physical act, or for something else. The picture alone 
has value to the emotions ; awakens a feeling of awe, 
sublimity, and physical courage. But this would give 
little meaning worthy of a piece of literature. It may 
be thought a warning against fool-hardy attempts. Some 
one criticizes Longfellow severely for giving us here 
nothing better than a crank for a hero. But there are 
many indications that Longfellow meant something better 
than the critic discerned. The banner, with its strange 
device, the flashing eye, the clarion voice, beautiful in 
death, and especially the voice from heaven like a falling 
star — all indicate some meaning a,bove physical courage 
or fool-hardiness. If such courage is all, the critic is 
right ; and the poem has no message to man. 

But if the reader will look through this daring and 
unwavering physical act, to a daring and unwavering 
spiritual act to which the lines hint and the heart feels 
in reading, the fool-hardy crank disappears and the spirit- 
ual hero emerges. What is it to climb the Alps ? It 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 211 

is to strive for the highest good of the soul in spite of 
ease, allurements, and threatening dangers. This physi- 
cal act is a type of the spiritual act of striving for the 
unattainable ideal. To climb the Alps is to stand by 
principle even in the face of death ; to abide by the true 
self against all allurements and in face of all dangers. 
While it may be questionable courage to climb the Alps 
under such circumstances, it is not so in climbing the 
heights of moral sublimity. We give all honor to the 
man who is a martyr to a principle j or to the one who 
unwaveringly and without debate moves resolutely onward 
to the goal of noble manhood or womanhood. 

Such is the ideal spiritual truth which is mirrored forth 
by the physical act of the youth in climbing the Alps. It 
is ideal because it is the way all should strive ; and it is 
universal because this ideal urgency finds a response in 
every heart. It is a universal ideal. It ought to be noted 
also that it is universal in the sense of being fundamental 
and essential in the development of the soul. It touches 
life from its center to its circumference, coloring all its 
sentiments and controlling all its actions. The poem is, 
therefore, of high grade, so far as the quality of the theme 
is concerned. 

3. In the next step the pupil must show how the 
individual physical act is an adequate expression of the 
ideal, universal truth. First, the physical act was so 
difficult as to require the sacrifice of life. If it had 
been an ordinary affair of strolling up an undulating 
mountain-side, it would have been no test of physical 






212 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

courage, and no type of that moral courage which holds 
on to the good of the soul against every counter force. 
If Longfellow had pictured such a physical feat he 
would not have represented the heroism of the soul in 
facing physical death for spiritual life. 

The physical act is given the more intensity by thrust- 
ing aside, as well as dangers in the pathway, the tempta- 
tions of ease and allurements — the gleaming of household 
fires amidst the snow and ice, and the maiden's entreaty. 
By thus giving the picture the two parts of clangers and 
allurements, the writer typifies the two classes of forces 
that turn man from seeking his ideal. Bringing the two 
together makes it doubly strong. Man is turned from his 
ideal either by the love of ease and the seductions of life, 
or by trials and dangers confronting him. 

The difficulty and danger of climbing the Alps is made 
alarming by the darkness, the snow and ice, the tempest, 
the roaring torrent, the spectral glacier, and the awful 
avalanche. With such dangers and allurements it must 
be noted that it did not occur to the youth to debate the 
question of moving upward. With sad, earnest brow and 
flashing eye, his clarion voice rang forth the motto of his 
life, without stopping to reply to the maiden's entreaty or 
the old man's or the peasant's warning. Without this 
steadiness and persistency in the physical act, it would 
not express the ideal holding after the good of the soul. 

It must be noted that the ideal character of the theme is 
well expressed by the choice of the poet's words in describ- 
ing the physical act. In speaking of the banner he says it 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 213 

was a " strange device," " an unknown tongue." Also, 
that the air was "startled" by the voice uttering the 
motto. This was not an unknown tongue because it was 
Latin ; but because it was not the customary motto on the 
banner of life. It is a strange thing to find a young man 
moving through life completely under the control of the 
highest ideal. If there had been inscribed on the banner, 
business, money, thrift, success in " getting on," the air 
would not have been startled and the device would not 
have been strange. All can speak that tongue. Any 
young man in a community who devotes himself wholly to 
the soul's chief good will speak an unknown tongue to 
those about him. His banner would be strange among 
banners in the mad rush of the business world. To suit 
that community the poem would have to be rewritten after 
this style : — 

The shades of night were falling fast, 
As through an Alpine village passed 
A youth, who bore 'mid snow and ice, 
A banner with the familiar device, 

Money ! 

Finally, he was beautiful in death ; and " still grasping 
in his hand of ice the banner with the strange device," 
showing that he grasped firmly his ideal even in death. 
But the climax of embodiment is reached when " from the 
sky serene and far, a voice fell like a falling star," — the 
heavenly witness of triumph where the world can see but 
failure. If the teacher wishes to press this lesson on the 
side of oral expression he will have only to note that oral 



214 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

expression in all of its qualities is determined by the 
relation of the embodiment to the theme, — in fact is but 
the oral form of the embodiment. 

There is here no space for further illustrations ; but if 
the teacher will pursue this thought diligently he will find 
that, while there are infinite variations, the thought of the 
student must move along the lines above suggested. 

Applying the General Notion. 

It has already been stated that the general notion may 
be considered, not only in its nature and process of forma- 
tion, but in its application to concrete reality and life. It 
is one thing to form the concept plant or democratic 
government, and another thing to use these concepts to 
increase knowledge and to guide conduct. As already 
stated, the general notion is applied by a process called 
Argumentation. The process is based on the organic rela- 
tion of the individual, particular, and universal. It will 
facilitate the discussion to make clear at the outset the 
relation of these ideas. 

Under exposition it was shown that the general idea is 
formed from individual objects by binding them into unity 
among themselves, and at the same time binding this unity 
into the unity of the universe. Thus the general idea has 
its universal and particular relations in unity with indi- 
vidual objects. 

Particular attributes are those common to all the indi- 
viduals of the class, but not extending to any individual 
beyond the class ; thus binding the individuals of the class 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 215 

into their own unity. Universal attributes are also com- 
mon to the individuals of the class, but they extend 
beyond the class, binding it into some larger unity with 
other classes. The individual, as well as the class, has 
attributes which extend beyond it ; these are also called 
universal. Universal is here used in the sense that the 
attribute extends beyond the individual or the class under 
consideration. The mind consciously puts a limit to indi- 
vidual and particular attributes ; but universal attributes 
are not limited in thought. When it is said that a noun 
expresses an object by naming it, the particular mark, "by 
naming it," has definite limit given to it in thought ; it 
terminates in the last noun, and the thinker is conscious 
of the fact. But the universal attribute, " expressing an 
object," connects the noun with the pronoun, and with 
various other things expressing objects, not at the time 
definitely limited in thought. -The universal attribute may 
connect the class defined only with the immediate larger 
class ; but it is still universal, for this larger class has 
connections out through larger and still larger classes till 
the universe is reached. Any attribute which connects the 
class under consideration with any larger class is called a 
universal attribute. 

Argumentation is a peculiar movement of the mind 
from the individual through the particular to the universal ; 
and from the universal through the particular to the indi- 
vidual. It thus appears to be another phase of the universal 
law of method in learning ; it is a method of unifying the 
universal and the individual. What is its peculiarity ? 



216 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

An argument is the indirect unification of two of the 
foregoing attributes by means of the third. These attri- 
butes are directly unified with one another by means of 
judgment. A judgment is the decision of the mind in 
regard to the objective reality of a general idea. When it 
is said that the plant grows, that the object in the tree is 
a bird, a decision is made as to the objective reality of the 
general ideas, grows and bird. Such a decision argument 
is to justify. To argue is to present grounds for the 
mind's belief in the unity of the general and the individual. 
The ground of the mind's decision as to the unity of two 
ideas is their common relation to a third. The mark of 
reasoning is that there is conscious, indirect perception 
of unity. 

If it is to be argued that the universal attribute, intense 
feeling, is found in the individual, Burns, a third idea 
intermediate between Burns and intense feeling — the 
particular — must be introduced. Let this particular be 
the class, poet. Intense feeling includes orators and others, 
as well as poets ; and hence is universal in relation to 
poets. Poets contain the universal, intense feeling, and 
include Burns ; hence the intense feeling must be in 
Burns. Thus the universal is in the individual through 
the particular. This kind of argument is called Deduction, 
a " leading down " from the universal through the particular 
to the individual. 

If the universal, intense feeling is affirmed of all in 
the class poets, it must be by means of the individual 
Burns, and as many other poets as necessary to justify 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 217 

the inference. Burns, and each individual examined — 
all known to be poets — has united in him all the attri- 
butes common only to the class poets, and the universal, 
intense feeling, which is also common to the class poets 
but extends to other classes. These two elements being 
found in each individual examined, tends to establish the 
belief that all poets have intense feeling. This conclusion 
is the truth assumed in the preceding argument. The 
movement here is from the individual through the particu- 
lar to the universal. This kind of argument is called 
Induction, "a leading into" a general conclusion from 
individuals. 

Another movement is necessary to unify the particular 
and the individual — to prove that Burns was a poet. This 
is accomplished by means of the universal attribute — 
universal in relation to the individual. It must first be 
known that poets express, in artistic language, idealized 
feeling in imaginative forms. Next, these attributes must 
be sought for in Burns. These universal attributes iden- 
tify Burns with the class poets. The movement of mind 
is that of discerning that the universal attributes of the 
individual are identical with the particular attributes of the 
class. Hence this kind of argument is called Identification. 

Giving the foregoing arguments the formal statement 
of the Syllogism, they appear thus : — 
Deduction : 

All poets have intense feeling ; 

Burns was a poet ; 

Therefore, Burns had intense feeling. 



218 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

Induction : 

Burns was a poet ; 

Burns had intense feeling ; 

Therefore, all poets have intense feeling. 
Identification : 

A poet expresses intense feeling through imaginative forms, in 
artistic language. 

Burns expressed intense feeling through imaginative forms, in 
artistic language. 

Therefore, Burns was a poet. 

These three movements are not properly three argu- 
ments, but the triple cord of a single argument. Each 
is grounded in the truth established by the other two. 
Deduction has no force unless the first proposition is 
established by induction, and the second by identification. 
Induction has force only when its first proposition is 
established by identification, and the second by deduction. 
Identification has no meaning unless its first proposition 
is established by induction, and its second by deduction. 
The certainty of the conclusion in each separate movement 
in the argument depends, therefore, not only on the correct- 
ness of that movement, but on the correctness of those 
which have conditioned it. In the practical conduct of an 
argument, the three kinds of reasoning move together, 
supporting each other in the conclusion to be established. 
Fallacies usually arise from breaking this triple unity of 
the argument. An argument made by one of the processes 
may seem to be clinching when in fact it has no basis in 
premises well established by the other processes. Hence, 
the pupil, being trained to safe habits of argumentation 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 219 

must be challenged in botli of the premises, as well as in 
the justness of the conclusion drawn from the premises. 

The foregoing movements in the argument give rise 
to three methods of teaching by argumentation. While 
they move forward together, each should be distinct in 
consciousness to the teacher. These methods are so inti- 
mately related that it is questionable if they can be 
spoken of as distinct methods of teaching subjects ; as, an 
inductive or a deductive method of teaching arithmetic, 
grammar, etc., for they are the intertwined movements 
through all subjects. The fact that the factor of two or 
more numbers is a factor of their sum may be proved 
by induction. The pupil should examine many cases, 
until he generalizes the facts into a law. Then, by deduc- 
tion, the generalization, made by induction must be shown 
to be necessarily true. By the examination of instances 
the pupil may infer by induction that all infinitives have 
a substantive use. This should also be established by 
deduction. And in these movements it will be necessary 
to settle the question as to whether a word in question is 
an infinitive. Note that in these examples deduction does 
not start from the truth generalized by induction, but 
from some universal above that, and descends to it as a 
particular. The universal of the induction is the particular 
of the deduction which clinches the induction. Thus the 
teacher in moving through any subject is constantly using 
all the methods. 

It must not be supposed that argumentation is a method 
of thought to be used after the pupil has completed his 



220 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

discussion of the individual under description and narra- 
tion, or after lie has treated the general notion by the 
process of exposition. Argumentation is in and through 
all those processes. In fact it has been emphasized many 
times that all the processes discussed under the head of 
universal method are only phases of one movement. The 
three organic movements in the argument have, therefore, 
been implicit in all the foregoing discussions. This sug- 
gests further that the teacher need not wait till pupils 
study logic for an opportunity to train them to habits of 
correct reasoning. Logic may formulate the theory of 
reasoning, but it cannot supply the habit and structure of 
thought which should be formed in all studies. 

These methods of teaching are so important as to justify 
a more detailed statement of — 

THE PROCESSES IN AN ARGUMENT. 

1. Controlled by Relation of Extent. 
Deduction. — Proof in deduction is based on the axiom 
that whatever attribute is common to all the individuals of 
a class must be found in each individual of the class. It 
is impossible to believe that all statesmen are politicians 
and at the same time believe that this statesman is not a 
politician. To think that all horses are quadrupeds 
necessitates the thought that this horse is a quadruped. 
The conclusion is concerning the part of a whole ; which 
part is affirmed, through the mediation of an idea more 
general than itself and less general than the whole, to 
have the same universal nature as the whole. To make 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 221 

this more distinct, picture the relations among the three 
ideas involved in this argument : Put all quadrupeds in a 
circle ; then within this circle put another circle containing 
horses, and within the circle containing horses, select one 
horse. This one horse being in the circle of horses, which 
is in the circle of quadrupeds, must himself be in the 
circle of quadrupeds. He cannot be thought outside of 
the larger circle while he is thought in a circle within the 
larger one. 

It thus seems that a deductive syllogism is absolutely 
conclusive. But it is not so unless (1) the premises are 
sound and (2) the unity of the two ideas is properly made 
in the third. 

1. Because of its convincing force in itself, the student 
is too often satisfied without raising a question as to the 
foundation of the deduction in its premises. Deduction 
cannot increase the certainty of truth beyond the warrant 
of the induction and the identification on which it rests. 
At best it can only be said that what it affirms is true, pro- 
vided something else is true. A speaker often makes a 
plausible argument because the unwary auditor does not 
stop to question the unwarranted assumption on which the 
argument rests. How many great questions have for 
years been settled on the current assumption that the 
Monroe Doctrine is final truth ! Foreign immigration is 
restricted on the assumption that whatever is a burden to 
American institutions should be prohibited. This may be 
a sound major premise ; but certainly it is not a final 
truth concerning the policy of a nation. It might be said 



222 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

that a nation should do all it can in a hospitable and 
philanthropic way to advance the civilization of the world, 
forgetting its own selfishness in the larger movement. 
The assumption of this premise might lead to the same 
conclusion as the preceding ; but it shows here that un- 
questioned premises are not always unquestionable. The 
campaign speaker on free trade or protection often slyly 
beguiles his hearer into the assumption of premises which 
are sure to clinch the argument on his side of the question. 
Do you want British free trade ? Assumption : British 
free trade is a bad thing. Do you not want to buy where 
you can buy cheapest ? Assumption : Free trade makes 
cheap buying. 

Man's practical life is always regulated by the major 
premises which he assumes and to which he adheres. At 
this point the teacher's opportunity and responsibility are 
great. Not only should the pupil be trained to caution in 
the assumption of premises ; but he should be brought 
to adopt the highest spiritual development as the major 
premise from which to argue all questions of individual, 
social, or political conduct. It is often urged, and with 
reason, that pupils should have instruction in civics pre- 
paratory to citizenship ; but no better preparation can be 
given than that of training them to survey cautiously the 
premises of action in a given case. They thus become free 
from party bias, the political rabble, and the demagogue ; 
and what is a more immediate and pressing necessity ? A 
free citizen, to be free, must be able to ground his action 
in a universal truth which overshadows his immediate 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 223 

actions and his relations to his fellow-man. To this end 
careful training in assuming ultimate truth as a major 
premise in argument and action is indispensable ; as it is 
also indispensable in searching out truth for truth's sake — 
in bringing the learner into unity with the world about 
him. 

2. With accepted premises there may be a fallacy in 
the connection of the minor and major terms through the 
middle. The law here is that if the two terms are united 
in the middle, one may be affirmed of the other ; if not so 
united, the affirmation cannot be made. If one is included 
in the middle and the other excluded, one may be affirmed not 
to be the other ; but if both are excluded from the middle, no 
affirmation can be made. 

The pupils should be trained to picture the relation of 
the three terms, universal, particular, and individual ; or 
as they are named in the syllogism, the major, middle, and 
minor terms. 

Suppose pupils are to prove that this object, a bird, is 
warm-blooded. The thought moves from this object to 
bird, and then to warm-blooded animals. But the move- 
ment is formally tested in the reverse order by means of 
the syllogism ; thus : — 

All birds are warm-blooded ; 
This object is a bird ; 
Therefore, it is warm-blooded. 

Now require pupils to put in a circle all warm-blooded 
animals ; and within this circle another containing birds, 



224 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

as required by the first proposition. This circle is smaller 
than the first because many warm-blooded animals are not 
birds. Next put this bird in the smaller circle, as required 
by the last proposition. The mind cannot think this bird 
in the smaller circle, which is in the larger, and at the 
same time think this bird outside the larger. 

Testing the following by the same means we find a 
different result : — 

All mammals are warm-blooded ; 
This bird is warm-blooded ; 
Therefore, this bird is a mammal. 

Again imagining all warm-blooded animals in a circle ; 
and within this circle a smaller circle of mammals, as the 
first proposition requires. The circle of mammals is 
smaller and falls completely within the circle of warm- 
blooded animals, since there are many other animals 
besides mammals that are warm-blooded. The second 
proposition requires this bird to be placed in the circle of 
warm-blooded animals ; but whether it falls within or 
without the circle of mammals is not expressed by the 
proposition. Hence the conclusion cannot be drawn that 
this bird is a mammal, or that it is not. Simply no affirma- 
tion can be made. 

So much will suggest the method of testing all possible 
cases that may arise under the deductive syllogism. 
Jevon's Science Primer of Logic will aid the teacher who 
is interested in making the most of this kind of drill. 
Again let it be said that the teacher must not wait till the 



THINKING THE GENEBAL. 225 

formal study of logic to give training in this form of 
thought. Theory is not the thing most needed ; it is 
training to a form of conception — to conceive with logical 
precision the nnity of two ideas through a third. The 
opportunity is not only offered throughout the common 
school course, but it is a necessity of that course. Pupils 
can perform this feat of thought in simple cases from the 
very outset of the course. 

Induction. — Proof through, induction is based on the 
belief that what is essential to the part must be common 
to the whole. And this is based on our faith that the 
world is an organic, systematic whole. If this faith were 
removed, all induction would be impossible. To argue by 
induction is to make the strongest appeal to this faith. 

A single act of deduction is conclusive ; but a single act 
of induction may create only probability. What the sin- 
gle act lacks in convincing power must be made good by 
the repetition of inductive acts. This seems a clumsy and 
unsatisfactory process, but there comes a point in the 
accumulation of examples at which the feeling of proba- 
bility becomes certainty. In fact, the mind has so much 
faith in the uniformity of nature that the feeling of cer- 
tainty arises before it is warranted by the facts observed. 
One most important point in training pupils to correct 
habits of induction is that of checking hasty conclusions. 
This was illustrated in the lesson sketched on the plural 
of the word boys. Pupils might infer at once that all 
plurals were made by adding the letter s. Certainly they 
would do so after a few other such plurals were studied. 



226 THE TEACHING PEOCESS. 

Their conclusion should be disturbed by the study of 
words forming their plurals in es. Next time they will 
be inclined to withhold judgment till more complete 
observation. Yet soon they will conclude that all plurals 
are formed by adding s or es. This conclusion will 
again be disturbed ; and so with others till all plural 
forms are reached. Such is the opportunity constantly 
offered to train to caution in making conclusions by 
induction. 

The number of individuals examined through which a 
conclusion is reached may range from one to all, except 
one. If all were examined, the process would be general- 
ization and not induction. Induction is the leap of faith 
from the known to the unknown ; it bridges the chasm 
betiveen the realm of observation and what lies beyond 
observation. This illustrates again that reason is a phase 
of the mind's freedom in identifying itself with the world 
lying beyond. It can know the world and that kind of 
truth which lies beyond the range of observation and 
imagination. 

There are two phases of induction: (1) that which 
concerns itself with the connection among attributes in 
objects, called analogy, and (2) that which concerns itself 
with the connection among objects themselves. 

1. By analogy it is concluded that when a given number 
of attributes are connected in a given object, and part of 
the same number are found in another object, the others 
of the first object are inferred to be in the second. The 
conclusion in analogy is affirmed on the ground of (a) the 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 227 

number of resembling attributes in two objects ; and (b) 
the causal connection between the points of resemblance. 

a. The greater the number of attributes found to corre- 
spond in the two objects the more confidently may those 
not observed in one of the objects be inferred to be 
present in that object. This is reasoning by mere resem- 
blances. If it be known that a piece of chalk is light, 
white, brittle, and can be used to make a mark, on seeing 
a second object, or any number of them, which has the 
first three marks, the fourth will be inferred to be present. 
To argue, then, by analogy, in this the lowest phase, is to 
present as many points of resemblance between the known 
and the unknown terms as possible. 

This phase of analogy, that of mere resemblance, is 
used much by people who have but little power of thought. 
No argument is more convincing to this class than an 
example, however superficial the resemblances. To give 
an example of a man who is profane, who tells falsehoods, 
and who belongs to a certain political party, is sufficient to 
convince the unthinking, who do not know the other 
adherents of the same faith, that they too are profane and 
untruthful. 

b. The number of attributes, however, is not the safest 
basis of inference. Much more depends on the causal 
connection in the points of resemblance. If a strange 
animal were found to have a peculiar structure of the 
skeleton, it would be safer to infer that all of the class had 
the same structure, than to infer that the class had the 
same color as the specimen examined ; even if they resem- 



228 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

bled in many other superficial points. Inference from 
analogy becomes more certain as the points of resemblance 
become more fundamental. If the objects under question 
can be shown to have a similarity to the known term of 
comparison in a single essential respect, it is more con- 
vincing than resemblance in many superficial attributes. 
Therefore, in arguing by analogy, the points of comparison 
must be shown to be essential to the nature of the object. 
When this cannot be done, the mere force of the number 
of points of resemblance must be resorted to. If it is to 
be proved, by its analogy to the earth, that Jupiter is 
inhabited, the accumulation of all the points of resem- 
blance would have weight ; but to show that Jupiter is 
like the earth in those points that condition human life, 
would be far more convincing. 

2. The second phase of induction, that which connects 
objects rather than attributes of an object, has two phases 
corresponding to those in analogy ; conclusions based on 
(a) number of objects resembling ; and (b) on the causal 
connection between the objects. 

a. The conclusion in this phase of induction is based on 
the mere force of accumulated examples. The first orange 
observed being yellow does not justify the assertion that 
all oranges are yellow. But by repeated observations, the 
mind confidently extends this attribute to all oranges ; 
and does so without perceiving any necessary connection 
between the color and the orange. We believe only on 
the ground that if there had been oranges of other colors 
we should have chanced upon them. As the number 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 229 

increases, probability grows into certainty. Not that this 
can ever become the certainty of demonstration, for the 
opposite of what is affirmed may always be conceived ; 
but the mind rests satisfied in its conclusion. As in the 
first phase of analogy the force of the argument is in the 
number of points of resemblance, so in this the convincing 
power is in the mere number of examples. 

b. The highest phase of induction seeks a causal con- 
nection as the basis of inference. The more fundamental 
the relation of the attributes observed, the fewer examples 
are needed. It is sometimes impossible to discover an 
essential relation of the attribute under question to the 
object in which it is found ; as, why an orange is yellow. 
In such cases there is no appeal from the mere force of 
numbers. But in most cases, arguing by induction con- 
sists in pointing out the essential relations of the property 
under discussion to the others in the examples produced. 
When the manner of the working of the cause is obvious, 
there is little difficulty in the process ; as, in the rain 
wetting the ground. We see in the nature of rain why 
this effect is produced, and have no hesitancy in saying 
that rain will always produce this effect. The relation 
that the valves sustain to the function of the heart is 
easily determined, and that all hearts have such parts is 
readily inferred. But the manner of the working of causes 
cannot in all cases be detected ; as, a tree growing more 
rapidly in one kind of soil than the same kind of tree has 
been observed to grow in another kind of soil. In such a 
case it must be shown that there exists a cause and effect 



230 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

relation. We may not see how they are connected, but to 
know that they are necessarily connected is safe ground 
for the induction. 

When the manner of the working of a cause cannot be 
detected, it becomes difficult to decide that there is really 
a cause and effect relation. Especially is this true in com- 
plex phenomena ; for in this the essential is entangled 
with the accidental. Logicians have given us four methods 
of detecting the presence of this- relation. 1 

Identification. — This is the process of deciding whether 
an object is or is not one of a class. The purpose is not 
to form a class, but to find the class in the individual for 
the knowledge of the individual. A strange plant is 
found, and the first impulse of the mind is to class it. A 
course of reasoning follows for that purpose. A common 
illustration is found in a parsing lesson. Is this word an 
infinitive or a noun ? is the type of question to be argued. 

Proof by identification rests on the perception of the 
identity of essential attributes in the individual and the 
class. For instance, an infinitive expresses an abstract 
object and time ; this word expresses an abstract object 
and time ; therefore it is an infinitive. The proof is based 
on the axiom that things equal to the same thing are equal 
to each other. The first step in the process is to expound 
the class to which the individual is supposed to belong ; 
the second step is to describe the individual; and the 
third is to ascertain by comparison whether the individual 
contains all the attributes essential to the class. 

1 See Mill's Logic, pp. 278-291. 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 231 

The teacher has constant opportunity for drill in this 
form of reasoning. In the study of animals the pupil may 
class the bat with birds. He should be required to formu- 
late the essential ideas constituting birds, and then test 
the bat as to these essential points. The likeness observed 
in superficial attributes must yield to the likeness among 
essential attributes. The mere fact of having wings is 
less essential to life than internal structure. A certain 
movement of water is classed as an ocean current ; and the 
student must be required to justify his classification by 
showing identity of essential attributes. Why not class it 
as a river ? a wave ? An expression in the reading lesson 
is called a figure of thought ; then require pupils to 
enumerate the essential ideas of a figure, and find those 
ideas in the expression under question ; noting also those 
not essential and not common to the class figures. It is 
worth much to the teacher to be conscious of his mental 
movement, for then it may be directed and cultivated with 
precision and effect. 

2. Process controlled by Relation of Cause and Effect. 

Another view of argumentation has practical guidance 
for the teacher. The preceding phases of an argument, I 
deduction, induction, and identification, grow out of the 
relation of the extent of the ideas involved — individual, 
particular, and universal. There is consciousness of a 
mediating idea. But all this rests on a deeper truth — the 
organic connection of things in themselves. The primary 
question is, What is there in the nature and relation of 



232 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the things in themselves to constitute the unity sought ? 
The real relations of objects in the world is the reason for 
connecting them in a proposition. The primary reason for 
the relation asserted is found not in the relation of whole 
and part, or the relative extent of ideas, as it seemed in 
the discussion of arguments on the preceding basis, but in 
the constituting elements of the objects and ideas them- 
selves. All the relations of an object which bring it into 
connection with another — the interdependences of things 
— are the basis for connecting them in a proposition. All 
such relations, dependencies, interactions, are compre- 
hended under the relation of cause and effect. This is the 
underlying truth assumed in the discussions of the preced- 
ing processes. There the mental movement was empha- 
sized ; now the relations among things themselves which 
control that movement are to be set forth. The relations 
of individual, particular, and universal are not to be left 
out of sight ; only the cause and effect relation among 
them to be emphasized. 

Suppose on looking out in the morning we find the 
ground wet and wish to explain it. This can only be 
done by applying concepts. Let us try the concept rain- 
fall. This concept has for its content the idea water 
falling in drops from the clouds, caused by a definite 
condition of the air, and producing a definite effect in 
falling. No general idea of rain can be formed without 
these constituent ideas. The particular fact observed 
seems to answer to the effect in the concept. If, on close 
inspection, it has all the marks of the effect in the concept, 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 233 

the other elements must also be present in the concept 
— water falling from clouds, and this caused by certain 
conditions of the air. Hence we conclude that the par- 
ticular phenomenon of last night had all the elements of 
the general idea, and bore the relation of effect to all the 
other constituent ideas. We, therefore, conclude that it 
rained. This individual effect before us is thus connected, 
through the particular, with its universal, by the relation 
of cause and effect ; the effect before us being the individ- 
ual, the rainfall of last night the particular, and rainfall 
in general the universal. 

Changing the application of the concept, suppose that in 
the afternoon the weather is warm, the air is moist, and 
the clouds begin to form. We find in this what answers 
to the cause in the concept. We have reason to affirm 
that the other elements in the concept will be present. If 
we observe the falling drops of water, we supply the two 
elements, the cause and the effect of the falling. Note 
here that the cause is not the same as in the other ex- 
amples, the falling itself being a cause in the first, and an 
effect in the second. In reasoning each element in the 
concept bears in turn the relation of cause or effect, as one 
or the other is the basis for seeking the unknown element. 
The clouds and the falling drops may be either cause or 
effect to the element sought. 

In the above example the universal element was sought 
through the particular to explain the individual — the 
syllogistic movement under the relation of cause and 
effect. The same relation of cause and effect is the basis 



234 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

of connection when the individual is sought in the uni- 
versal in order to establish the truth of the universal — 
the inductive movement under the relation of cause and 
effect. Suppose there is to be proved this universal prop- 
osition : " All tyrants are selfish men." This must be 
proved by individuals from the class tyrants. Caesar 
being a tyrant and selfish is in the line of proof. But 
how does this tend to establish the proposition ? Not 
merely as an example ; for then it were as well to argue 
that all tyrants are good generals, because Caesar was a 
tyrant and a good general. There must be shown in this 
example some causal connection between tyranny and 
selfishness ; as, Caesar's selfishness, his desire to control 
others to his own good, necessarily manifested itself in the 
form of tyranny. More examples would strengthen the 
argument ; but each example derives its force from the 
relation that selfishness as a cause bears to tyranny as an 
effect. Thus we are convinced that, in general, wherever 
we find the cause selfishness we will find its effect tyranny 
When we wish to prove that all plants are organic, we do 
so by showing in the concrete examples observed, that 
there is an essential, a causal relation existing between 
plant life and the organs through which that life mani- 
fests itself. 

Thus, on this new basis of cause and effect there are 
two classes of arguments : those in which the cause is 
given to establish the effect ; and those in which the effect 
is given to establish the cause. The first are called A 
Priori arguments, or arguments from Antecedent Prob- 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 235 

ability ; the second are called A Posteriori arguments, or 
arguments from Experience. 

A Priori Arguments. — The a priori arguments are 
arguments from cause to effect, explaining either what 
has happened or what will likely happen. Thus we may 
prove that with the increase of popular education there 
will be a decrease in crime ; education having in itself 
a nature, a force, a cause, such as to produce this as an 
effect. That a certain candidate will be elected may be 
predicted from his high character, or the principles which 
he embodies. That prosperous times are or are not pro- 
duced by a change in governmental administration is to be 
proved by determining whether there is in the nature of 
the case a sufficient cause. Tourgee urges, in his "Appeal 
to Caesar," that there will arise future trouble with the 
South from the cause now present — the multiplication of 
the negro population. The guilt or innocence of an accused 
person in court may be largely established by the a priori 
argument. It is difficult to convict a person whose charac- 
ter is such as to furnish no antecedent probability for the 
crime alleged ; while it is easy to do so where there is 
such a probability. If the man accused of murder is 
shown to have hated the murdered intensely, and would 
gain great riches by committing the crime, there would be 
a strong motive to the deed. This, however, would not 
prove his guilt, but would show only why he may have 
committed the murder. To give such evidence its great- 
est force, it must be shown that there is nothing in 
the accused person's character to oppose the free action 



236 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

of the motive ; as, fear of the law, or high moral 
character. 

Law of inference from cause. — Whenever there is a 
known cause its full effect must be inferred, provided 
there are no hinderances. When there are hinderances, 
the effect is decreased in proportion to the hinderance, to 
the point of prevention. The degree of probability depends 
on the strength of the cause after the hinderance is over- 
come. To prove the absence of cause, or that the cause is 
neutralized by opposing forces, is to destroy all probability 
whatever. If a man has no motive to theft, or is confined 
so that the act would be impossible, he could not be 
charged with such a crime. 

Physical causes are more certain to be followed by their 
effects than moral causes. The warmth of the sun and 
the moisture in spring will clothe the earth in verdure ; 
but whether a nation at enmity against another will bring 
war is not so certain. In the realm of volition, so many 
and so complex are the motives, and so many of them 
hidden from view to all except the person choosing, that 
the connection of cause and effect is very uncertain. If 
all motives could be taken into account, the resulting 
effect in action could be as certainly inferred as the effect 
of a cause in the physical world. The uncertainty of 
prevision in history arises from this cause. The forces 
are so diffused and complex that their resultant is difficult 
to estimate. Besides so many latent forces in human 
character must be left out altogether. 

A common fallacy in argumentation under the law of 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 237 

inference from cause is the assumption that one of two 
or more effects which may seem to have equal connection 
with the cause is the effect which is to follow. Which 
of these effects will follow is the very point in question. 
Or, of two or more causes which may equally well account 
for the effect, one is assumed as the cause. Which of 
these is the real cause is to be proved by the argument. 
This fallacy is called, "begging the question." One writer 
may urge the system of land holding as the cause of the 
discontent of the country, while another finds the cause 
in foreign immigration ; and a third is sure that railroad 
monopolies are responsible. Each assumes one cause, and 
finding that it tends in the desired direction, expects his 
readers to infer it to be the sole cause ; while other causes 
may be shown to bear with equal force, and all of them, 
or some cause fundamental enough to include all the 
minor causes, might be a better basis for inference than 
any one presented. Another form of this fallacy is the 
assumption that one circumstance is the cause of another 
when it is only a concomitant. Statistics are presented to 
prove that illiteracy is the cause of crime ; while both 
illiteracy and crime may be common effects of the low 
character of the persons enumerated in the statistics. 
People do not read ; it is observed that they have no 
libraries ; and the second fact is thought to explain the 
first, while the absence of the reading and the library 
may be concomitant facts of a common cause ; as, the 
pressure of hard manual labor ; the desire for sensual 
indulgence ; sluggish state of mind. 



238 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

A fruitful source of such fallacies as the above is the 
desire or prejudice of the one who makes the argument. 
To a greater extent than one is conscious, will he select 
from probable causes the one which he desires to be the 
cause. The heart has arguments that the head knows 
not of. A bad motive is generally assumed to explain 
the action of those to whom we are opposed; and good 
motives to explain the actions of those with whom we 
agree. No candidate for office expects just inferences 
from the opposite party. Even the philanthropist, in 
carrying on some benevolent enterprise, is gratuitously 
supplied with selfish motives. When many good reasons 
will readily account for an action, the mind is too often 
determined in its choice, not by the careful estimate of 
the relation of cause and effect, but by the wish that a 
certain motive be the cause. The President may favor 
or veto a certain measure, and his course be explainable 
either by a desire for the general good or for some selfish 
gain. Party affiliations will cause one party to praise him 
for his disinterested loyalty and justice ; while with the 
other, party prejudice finds, in the position taken, nothing 
but selfishness or cowardice. When either the advantages 
of Free Trade or of Protective Tariff are to be proved 
against the other, many beneficial effects are assumed that 
could as easily be explained by other conditions ; and 
which would be so explained if the case had not been 
prejudiced — prejudged — by the desires. The caution 
needed here is that in estimating an argument the preju- 
dices of the writer or speaker be taken into account ; and 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 239 

that in making the argument those assumptions which 
prejudice intrudes be excluded. The remedy for this 
fallacy is to love truth more and victory less. The man 
who wishes to be really, not apparently, successful in 
debate must come to the question with an earnest desire 
to find the real relation of cause and effect involved solely 
for the sake of the truth. A debating club in which a 
question is discussed for the sake of victory is not con- 
ducive to that attitude of mind necessary to effective 
argument. The hypocrisy of the judgment in its pretense 
of reasons blinds it to the real relations and reasons when 
engaged in an actual contest for truth. Much of the 
so-called drill in debating is only a drill in fluency of 
words and manipulation of fallacies. 

The teacher's responsibility and opportunity through 
a priori argument are revealed by the foregoing. The 
teacher must not wait for the theory of argumentation 
before rigid drill in this process of thought is given ; nor 
turn aside from the daily work for an opportunity. It 
occurs as a daily necessity in almost every lesson ; and 
the teacher need only to be conscious of the movement 
to give the mind the correct habit and power of a priori 
thinking. In studying the Gulf Stream, its universal 
attributes must be sought ; say, its effect on the civiliza- 
tion of Europe. One means of ascertaining this is the 
a priori method of thought ; what would necessarily be 
expected from the nature of the Gulf Stream ? The 
World's Fair had universal elements in it ; effects that 
reach the nations of the earth. The problem is to find 



240 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

from the nature of the thing itself what this effect is to 
be. When a century has passed and the fruit has been 
borne the other method of thought may be turned back 
upon it. These are types of questions and thought move- 
ments that occur almost constantly in every subject and in 
every phase of school work. 

A Posteriori Arguments. — These are arguments from 
effect to cause, explaining why something is, or why 
something has happened. The effect is known, and the 
cause which produced it is sought. The a posteriori and 
the a priori arguments each presents the subject-matter 
under the relation of cause and effect. In the a priori, 
known causes point to unknown future events, or to some 
known effect which the known cause explains ; while in 
the a posteriori argument the effect is known and the 
cause sought. 

Whether in the physical or in the spiritual world, every- 
thing is thought as caused. We have seen that cause and 
effect are correlative terms ; that both are essential 
elements in every concept, so that when one is present, the 
mind naturally tends to connect the other. A failure in 
the wheat crop, a decrease in the price of merchandise, 
Chinese immigration, the movement of the locomotive 
engine, the engine itself, Gladstone's attitude toward home 
rule — all force the mind to seek the explanation in their 
respective causes. 

Inference of cause from effect is based on the different 
thought relations involved in thinking. The whole may 
be inferred from the part, or the part from the whole ; the 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 241 

substance from the attribute, or the attribute from the 
substance ; from likenesses other likenesses, or from dif- 
ferences other differences ; from an effect its adequate- 
cause ; from adaptation may be inferred purpose. From 
the presence of the whole of a steam engine, certain parts 
may be safely inferred ; or with a part of it present, the 
whole will be suggested. The attribute yellow being 
present in a distant field, some substance, as wheat or clay, 
will be suggested ; and the substance, wheat-field, will 
suggest some accompanying attribute. Likeness in color, 
form, texture, and parts of two kinds of fruit will suggest 
likeness as to flavor and odor ; and differences in the first 
respects named will suggest differences in the second. 
From the moving train, the steam as an adequate cause of 
the motion is inferred. From the adaptation of an anchor 
to grapple in the bed of the ocean the inference is readily 
made that some one designed it. 

But in all these cases the inference is based on the 
relation of cause and effect. The adaptation in the anchor 
is caused by its purpose ; that in the nature of the fruits 
which causes them to be alike in certain respects will 
cause them to be alike in other respects ; that which 
usually conditions or causes the presence of the yellow 
color under the conditions observed is still the cause ; and 
whatever there is in the nature of the engine to necessitate 
the relation of whole and part is permanent in causing 
that relation. 

Laws of inference from effect. - — The degree of force in 
the a posteriori argument varies with the certainty of the 



242 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

causal relation on which the inference is based. This 
depends on (1) the number and complexity of the causes 
which may produce the effect ; and (2) the efficiency and 
reality of the cause. 

1. A cause may be inferred from an effect with cer- 
tainty when the effect is such that only one cause will 
produce it. We may argue conclusively that the oak is 
produced from an acorn ; that steam is caused by heat ; 
that the burned house has been on fire ; there being no 
other cause for each phenomenon. The train is moving, 
and steam may be inferred as the cause ; but not conclu- 
sively, for there are other forces that may be moving it ; 
as, men, horses, electricity, gravity ; but when there are 
many causes, either of which or a combination of which 
may produce the effect, the inference becomes less certain 
as the number and complexity increase. As a rule, the 
number and complexity of causes increase in passing from 
the physical to the spiritual world. Especially is it dif- 
ficult to assign causes for social phenomena, so manifold 
and subtile are the moving forces. And nowhere are 
fallacies more common. They arise either from a lack of 
a comprehensive grasp of complex causal relations ; from 
a prejudice which leads to the assumption of one cause in 
preference to another ; or from the assumption of one 
cause instead of a group acting together. 

2. In the argument from resemblance, a cause may be 
inferred with certainty when the resemblances are essen- 
tial. On the ground that Caesar was selfish and a tyrant, 
it might safely be inferred that another ruler who was 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 243 

selfish was also a tyrant, there being a causal relation 
between selfishness and tyranny. Glass is transparent 
and brittle ; but it does not follow that because water is 
transparent it is also brittle ; there being no essential 
relation between transparency and brittleness. In snch 
cases the burden of proof consists in showing that the 
points of resemblance are so related to the nature of the 
object that they are constant marks of it. This may be 
done by establishing directly a causal relation, as in the 
case of selfishness and tyranny ; or by an accumulation of 
examples till the uniformity establishes a belief in a 
constant cause, as explained under Induction. 

Attributes and objects are so often accidental accom- 
paniments of each other without causal relation that 
arguments from example are fruitful sources of fallacies. 
The immature and the untrained mind, in their tendency 
to hasty conclusions, generally infer a causal relation 
where there is only an accidental coexistence ; as, — 

Some intemperate man lives to a great age ; therefore, 
intemperance is conducive to longevity. 

It rained on Monday and the two succeeding days of the 
week ; therefore, when it rains on Monday it will rain 
three days in the week. 

A great man smokes ; therefore, smoking is manly. 

Byron was licentious and a great poet ; therefore, 
licentiousness is favorable to poetic inspiration. 

A man who believes the doctrines of a certain church is 
immoral ; hence, the doctrines of that church tend to pro- 
duce immorality. 



244 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

This kind of argument is much, used by the sophist. 
The demagogue finds it an effectual means of carrying 
conviction to the minds of unthinking people. By means 
of it, he accounts for the dull or for the nourishing con- 
dition of the times ; the high or low prices of crops and 
merchandise ; the scarcity or the abundance of produc- 
tions ; the demand for labor or the difficulty with which 
it is obtained ; and gives the credit or the blame, as suits 
his purpose, to the party in power ; when the coexistence 
of the facts may be purely accidental. To prove the value 
of a classical over a scientific education, or vice versa, some 
eminent scholar is instanced who has pursued one of the 
courses ; while his eminence may be accounted for by a 
large number of causes ; as, natural endowment, more 
thorough discipline on account of superior teachers, social 
opportunities, combined effect of various studies, etc. The 
proof would be absolutely convincing if the same person 
could be the subject of each course ; for then the con- 
ditions would be identical ; or, if many examples under 
similar conditions from each course could be furnished. 
Through every phase of life, reasoning by example is a 
fruitful source of error in the lower order of thinkers, and 
hence an effective means of deception in the hands of the 
unprincipled. 

Let the teacher note his opportunity and responsibility 
under this process as under the preceding. In teaching, 
when the case permits, the two processes move hand in 
hand. Both methods are necessary to make a complete 
argument. In the preceding example of the Gulf Stream, 



THINKING THE GENERAL. 245 

the effects on English civilization should be forecast from 
the nature of Gulf Stream by the a priori method; and 
this should be supported by noting facts in that civiliza- 
tion which point back to the Gulf Stream as cause. In 
history the question will arise, What was the effect of 
slavery on the industrial and social life of the people? 
This must be viewed in two relations : first, the effect to 
be expected from the nature of slavery ; second, certain 
known present conditions which point back to slavery as 
the cause. It requires both movements to make the argu- 
ment strong and complete. Pupils should be trained to 
support the argument from both sides. Only the a priori 
method can be used when the effects lie in the future ; but 
in all other cases the two methods must support each 
other. 

Finally, let it be observed that the movement of thought 
by the two preceding methods is only another phase of the 
universal law of method, in which the mind moves from 
the individual out to the universal, and back with the 
universal to the individual. These relations of cause and 
effect connect the individual with the universe about it. 



246 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 

So far, under the head of method, we have considered 
the full round of the mind's activity on a given portion 
of subject-matter. There is a larger sense in which 
method is the movement of thought through the period 
of school life — the complex whole of the teaching process. 
This larger movement of thought must be in the mind 
of the teacher as a condition for knowing what the move- 
ment in detail must be. The larger movement is by 
steps, or stages of growth, along lines of thought running 
through school life. It is doubly complex, in that it has 
both coexisting and successive parts. This movement 
formulated is called the Course of Instruction, or the 
Course of Study 5 the word course suggesting the time 
element as the prominent factor. 

The universal law of method controls here as it does in 
the " Specific Phases of the Process." The relation of 
unity between the pupil and the subject to be learned con- 
trols the teaching process in a given act of instruction; 
so the process as the complex whole of school life is con- 
trolled by the relations of unity between the subject-matter 
taken as a whole, and the learner's life considered in its 
entire compass. The subject-matter is the basis of the 
course ; the growing pupil, the modifying factor. The first 
gives the lines which thread the course through from 
beginning to end ; the second gives the stages of forward 
movement on those lines. The first is the warp, the 
second, the woof of the course. Objective existence, 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 247 

or subject-matter, determines the one; the subjective order 
of the pupil's unfolding determines the other. 

The Objective Factor. 

The subject-matter furnishing the material for the 
course is all objective existence, including mind as its own 
object. All existence stands over against the mind, and is 
the means for its discipline and its illumination. Hence, 
by an analysis of the field of existence, as the mind knows 
it, the subjects of instruction are to be organized ; and the 
main lines of thought through the course to be determined. 

Existence is first made knowable by being formed into 
bodies through the forces of cohesion and gravitation. 
Thus we know bodies as mere bodies extending in space. 
Following closely upon this is knowledge of bodies as to 
number. This is based on the repetition of the perception 
of objects — based on time as the preceding is based on 
space. Every object that is known must be known as 
existing in space and time. Viewing bodies as to their 
form and number gives rise to the line of mathematics in 
the course. The peculiarity of this study is that the 
attributes are universal, belonging to all objects in the 
universe ; and are abstracted entirely from material bodies. 

The mind next knows these bodies as acted on by 
physical forces — atomic force, molecular force, and gravi- 
tation. Viewing bodies thus gives rise to the line of physical 
science in the course. These attributes are universal as 
before, but cannot be abstracted from the material body. 

While all bodies are acted on by physical force, some 



248 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

are acted on by life force, producing living or organized 
bodies. Viewing bodies nnder the influence of this force 
gives rise to the line of biological science in the course. 
This science differs from the two preceding in that the 
ideas are not universal. This gives rise to the division 
into organized and unorganized beings. Living objects 
are still acted on by physical forces, and exist under 
mathematical relations. Hence all living bodies are treated 
in the lines of physical and mathematical studies. 

Some of these living, organized beings are acted upon 
by spiritual or mind force, giving rise to psychological 
science, using the term in its broadest sense. The ideas 
here apply to still fewer objects. Such objects are still 
acted upon by life force and physical force, and exist under 
mathematical relations ; and hence are subjects of discus- 
sion in all the preceding lines. 

The world is a hierarchy of forces. Each is based in, 
and arises out of the preceding ; and all may manifest 
themselves in the same object. These forces condition the 
order of knowing the object. An object cannot be known 
as to its nature and physical forces till it is first thought 
in space and time. Hence the physical sciences are based 
on mathematical sciences. 

No organized or living being could exist as such, if it 
were not acted on by all the lower forces. A plant, to 
live, must be acted on by cohesion and chemical affinity. 
So that every living being must be known under the lower 
forces, and also under the mathematical relations, to be 
known at all. Hence the biological sciences are based 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 249 

upon the physical sciences, and through them on the 
mathematical sciences. 

Every being acted on by mind force could not exist 
as such if not acted on by all the lower forces, vital and 
physical, and if not existing under mathematical relations. 
Hence to know a spiritual being implies a knowledge of it as 
a living being, a physical being, and a mathematical being. 

All existence is organized under these relations and 
forces ; and this determines the lines along which the 
pupil's thought must move in gaining a knowledge of the 
objective world. These lines are separated because a new 
force is operative in passing upward from matter to mind ; 
they are unified in the fact that each lower relation and 
force is effective in all the succeeding. Man forms a distinct 
line because spiritual force is manifested ; but he is con- 
nected with all lines, since he is not only treated as a 
spiritual being, but as a biological being, as a physical 
being, and as a mathematical being. Plants and animals 
form a distinct line because of the presence of a force 
not found below them, and the absence of a force found 
above them. They are treated not only as biological 
beings, but as physical and mathematical beings. Thus 
arise the lines of study and the unity among them, giving 
the following course of study : — 

1. Mathematical Science — Time and Space — the Field 
of Creation. 

2. Physical Science — Matter and Physical Force. 
Subjects, i 

3. Biological Science — Matter — Physical Force and 

Life Force. 
I 4. Psychological Science — Mind Force. 



250 



THE TEACHING PROCESS. 



By the same process as the foregoing, each of these 
lines may be divided until the detail of studies is reached, 
which is usually given in the school curriculum. There 
is a force which divides physical science into physics and 
chemistry ; one that divides biological science into botany, 
zoology, and human physiology, etc. Space forbids such 
detail here. Summing up at once the result that would 
be reached, to the extent of the public school course, it 
stands about as follows : — 

fl. Geometry — Form and Extension. 





' Mathematical Science. - 


2. Arithmetic. 1 




1 3. Algebra. J ± 








"1. Physics. 


- 






Physical Science. 


2. Chemistry. 






m 
H 
Q 




^3. Geography. 
"1. Botany. 




► Natural Science 


n 


Biological Science. 


2. Zoology. 










.3. Human Physiology. 










fl. Psychology. 






1. Thought Power. 


i 2. Logic. 
1 3. Language. 

f 1. Drawing. 
-J 2. Music. 
1 3. Literature. 




, Psychological Science. < 


2. Peeling Power. 












3. WillPower. 


c 


. History. 
. Morals. 



Before the course of study is complete, each of these 
branches must be traced out into its logical relation of 
parts until parts are reached sufficiently narrow for a 



THE PBOCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 251 

single lesson. For instance, language studies are divided 
into three classes, accordingly as the language form is 
viewed in relation to an idea or in relation to a thought, 
or whether the form and thought taken in their unity, are 
viewed in relation to the effect which the speaker desires 
to produce. This gives rise to word study, sentence study, 
and discourse study. These again divide ; as, in discourse 
study there is the science and the art — the science treated 
in rhetoric : and the art, the science applied, in reading 
and composition ; the first being the interpretation of dis- 
course, and the second the construction. Continuing this 
process of logical division, subject-matter will be reached 
that can be compassed in the plan of a single recitation. 
When all subjects are thus reduced the basis of the course 
of study is formed. 

Such a plan of dividing and unifying the whole field 
of knowledge makes the course organic and systematic : 
giving it completeness and symmetry. Thus it is freed 
from bias, caprice, and custom. 

The Subjective Factor. 

From the foregoing it appears that the student should 
begin his work with mathematical studies ; completing 
these, he should next take the lowest physical science ; 
and thus move through the subjects in the order of con- 
ditioning and conditioned, completing each before begin- 
ning the next. While such is the logical order, it is not 
the learner's order ; chiefly because of his unfolding power 
of thought. This factor is so effective that, instead of 



252 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

pursuing each line through which logically conditions the 
next, all the lines are carried abreast. The child on enter- 
ing school takes a cross section of all the lines, — that 
phase of each of them which is adapted to the faculties 
then most active, and to the knowledge then possessed. 
He can advance but a little way in each before he falters 
from deficiency of knowledge or power of thought. Then 
he is compelled to turn back to pursue as far as possible 
another line. These forward movements are so insignifi- 
cantly short as compared to his movements from one line 
to another that his course of study is crosswise of the 
logical course. When more power has been gained each 
separate logical line is pursued relatively longer. This 
movement forward on lines begins, after awhile, to over- 
shadow the movement from one line to another. Finally, 
in university work, he specializes — feels his way along 
one line of thought out towards its limit. 

At the outset of the pupil's course, the field seems to be 
broader, since the pupil is compelled to range over the 
whole extent of knowledge ; but the content is shallow. 
In the last part of his course the field seems narrow, being 
limited to a single line ; but the content is deep. And 
since the content is deep, the field, while seeming narrow, 
is the whole extent of existence. The universal attributes 
in the line studied root themselves out into all being. So 
that while the special student expects to narrow his field, 
he has at the same time widened it by giving a universal 
meaning to the object studied. The university student 
seeks for universal content in the object, and this is uni- 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 253 

versal in extent ; while the primary pupil glides over 
universal extent, reaching only superficial content. 

It is all a question of the unfolding order of the subject 
as determined by the developing mind. Or, what is the 
same thing, it is the degree of generality of the subject- 
matter as determined by the phase of the mind addressed. 
The broad phases of mental development — perception, 
understanding, and reason, dealing with, respectively, in- 
dividuals, generals, and universals — give rise to the three 
phases of culture in the school system — common school, 
high school, and the university, treating respectively of 
common knowledge, science, and philosophy. This classi- 
fication of schools is not intended to fit into that now 
existing, but is ideally based on the laws of thought. The 
classification does, however, fit fairly well the existing 
state of things. It would remove the line between the 
high school and our so-called universities upward, and 
thus elevate both. 

These phases are broadly marked ; but they are valid, 
being grounded in the phases of the mind's development 
from infancy to maturity ; or, in the nature of knowledge 
as it presents itself in the three phases of the individual, 
the general, and the universal. For example, the child 
learns an individual cow, and soon others ; and as he 
proceeds in learning individuals, makes them into small 
classes. At the same time, it learns a particular horse, 
and then others ; and as before, makes them into a small 
class. And so with other objects ; classifying in respect 
to superficial and obtrusive attributes. But all the time 



254 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the individual classified is prominent in the child's con- 
sciousness. It is not consciously forming classes — seeking 
the general. Soon, these small classes are brought to- 
gether into larger ones ; increasing the extent of the class 
by dropping the superficial attributes of the content. The 
attributes become more general, and more fundamental. 
His thinking, we say, rises in generality. Soon his in- 
creasing group of animals grows into larger classes ; and 
because the common attributes become more general, less 
obvious, and, therefore, the more to be searched for, his 
effort to classify becomes conscious ; and he then begins to 
think scientifically — to form his science of animals — to 
study zoology. Thus, and at the same time, he builds up 
his knowledge of plants into the science of botany. Later, 
he unites the concept plant and the concept animal into 
that of living, organic being — dropping the uncommon, 
and therefore the most superficial attributes remaining ; 
yet holding to the one most fundamental and most general. 
He is now a biologist. In these latter phases, he is pass- 
ing through and out of the high school. Soon, he studies 
the laws of life in general. Spiritual laws are subsumed 
under laws of life ; and we have a student reaching well 
up into the universal — a university student. This is an 
orderly unfolding without breaks ; the divisions, as in all 
other cases, are made only for the convenience of thought. 
Hence the movement of the mind from the individual to 
the universal is not only the law of movement in learning 
irrespective of the time required, but it is the law of 
growth in knowledge through the unfolding years of 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 255 

life. It may properly be said then that a course of 
study is the subject-matter arranged in the necessary 
order of the learner's movement from the period of child- 
hood, when he grasps individuals as such through sense 
perception, to the time when he grasps, through reason, 
universals in individuals. 

From this it appears that there are no higher subjects ; 
only higher phases of the same subject. The study of 
form, treated in geometry, has its perceptive, imaginative, 
and experimental phase, suitable to the lowest grade of 
thinking. From this phase the subject, as it grows in the 
mind of the learner, increases in generality and depth 
of content until the highest mind may engage its best 
powers upon it. Geography has its perceptive and 
imaginative phase suitable to the child. In this phase 
he has an experience with individual objects within the 
range of sense-perception, and pictures the earth and the 
objects on it which lie beyond perception. Then fol- 
lows a low phase of organizing and grouping into small 
unities, under superficial laws by simple judgment, the 
objects supplied by the preceding processes ; at the same 
time enriching the work of sense-perception and the 
imagination. Thus continuing by degrees until the unity 
of the world is reached in a single principle. Instead of 
a multitude of things as at the beginning, the student at 
the end finds but one thing — the earth, inclusive of all 
other things studied in that line. This view of the earth 
in its organic unity, which includes its unity with the 
universe, requires the highest powers of the most gifted 



256 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

mind ; and is a fit subject for the university ; as the 
lowest phase mentioned is a fit subject for the primary 
grade. History has its picture and story side suitable for 
the child; and also its philosophic side suitable for a 
Hegel. 

In a course of study, therefore, all lines of thought 
should begin at the beginning of the course. The lower 
phase of all subjects should be mastered while the student 
is in the lower phase of thought. For instance, the 
imaginative and constructive phase of geometry, called 
form work, should be as fully done as possible before 
the power of demonstration is developed. The perceptive 
and memory phase of Latin can be most economically com- 
pleted while the pupil is in that phase ; leaving the higher 
powers free for exercise on the higher phase of the sub- 
ject. 

An objection is often urged against pursuing all lines of 
work at the same time — form, drawing, number, plants, 
animals, etc., on the ground of the burden thus placed 
upon the child ; and that it is better to be thorough in 
a few things than to be smatterers in many. 

It is not for the teacher to say what the field of thought 
shall be. If ideas of form and number, and physical and 
vital forces, etc., are organically related in the world to be 
known, then it is not for the teacher to vote them in or out. 
Ideas of form run through all the other subjects ; and if 
those ideas are not systematically taken care of in a line of 
their own they must be taught incidentally, and with inter- 
ruption, as they occur in the other lines. The idea triangle 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 257 

is essential to plant work, animal work, geography, physi- 
ology, reading, psychology, etc.; hence the teacher must 
be delayed if the idea has not been disposed of in the sys- 
tematic way. To gain an idea of the heart, and countless 
other things, the pupil must have the concept cone ; and 
it is economy to supply him with this form of thought in a 
systematic way, lest he become a smatterer. Geography 
involves ideas of plants and animals which can be much 
more effectively treated in their own lines. A study of 
mind so much facilitates the reading and literature work 
as to justify systematic lessons on that subject. All this 
means that the course cannot be lightened by shirking it. 
These things are in the course, and while they may be 
refused statement and treatment in separate lines, they 
cannot be voted out, however burdensome the course may 
seem. It is only a question whether they receive system- 
atic and effective treatment or haphazard and wasteful 
attention as they are stumbled onto in the progress of 
work. Whatever is in the course must be in the course. 

It is misplaced sympathy to restrict the number of 
studies to make the work easy. It is more burdensome to 
confine the attention to one line than to give the change 
and variety of six lines. There is a false notion, too, that 
by confining the child to a few lines, considered most 
essential, as, reading, writing, and arithmetic, he will move 
proportionately more rapidly if the lines are decreased. 
This cannot be done for two reasons : first, the more rapid 
movement is naturally checked by the difficulty of the 
subject increasing more rapidly than the child's power of 



258 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

thought increases. All the lines can be carried as rapidly 
as his developing power permits the child to advance on 
any one line. Second, as indicated above, the lines 
omitted from the narrowed course are essential to the free 
movement in the lines selected. Even music, which seems 
to be slightly connected with the other branches, from the 
rest and bouyancy it gives to the mind, may be carried 
along without retarding the progress in other lines. So 
that all the studies that would be omitted under the false 
notion of economizing the child's strength may be gained 
without loss of time, while supporting the lines so much 
desired. 

To be thorough in a few lines rather than a smatterer 
in many is a most deceptive argument. It thrusts in the 
face two horns of a dilemma, and in self-defense one of 
them is seized rather than to choose the other, forgetting 
that there may be a third choice. There is no such thing 
as being thorough in a few things without the knowledge 
of many. Besides, a student may be a smatterer in one 
line as easily as in two. To smatter is to study things as 
isolated ; to be thorough is to run a principle through 
them. A student may smatter in the study of botany ; he 
may study all things in their unity and thus not smatter. 
Herbert Spencer is a student of all lines, without smatter- 
ing. Bacon said : " I have taken all knowledge to my 
province." The question is not the number of things to 
which the student gives his attention, but whether he 
unifies his subject-matter ; and this means that he general- 
izes it. Specializing is not the end, but a means of 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 259 

universalizing. We do not specialize, because the whole 
field of knowledge is too broad to be compassed by one 
mind. The part seems to outrun man's powers as readily 
as the whole. A knowledge of the part requires a knowl- 
edge of the whole. Any part of knowledge is infinite in 
its relations. To know that particular tree requires a 
knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology; 
and these require a knowledge of languages. Also, there 
is required a knowledge of spiritual laws, whose analogies 
throw light on the tree life, and which forms the basis 
of knowledge and certainty of that which is thought to be 
found in the tree. 

"Mower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies ; — 
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower — but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is." 

A student cannot take up his specialty and treat it as 
isolated. The moment he reaches deep down, he finds 
universal truth ; and this forces him to reach beyond his 
specialty for light. The student decides to be a chemist ; 
and at once needs to be a good mathematician, physicist, 
biologist, linguist, and philosopher. We may hitch ahead 
a little our end of truth, but it is so connected with the 
other end that, one quadrant reached, and we shall go 
round in a circle unless we bring up the other end. Yet 
we are compelled to search for universal truth in the form 
of the particular. Therefore, these two seemingly antago- 



260 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

nistic phases of the university idea — that the university 
views its subject-matter from the standpoint of the univer- 
sal, and that it is a school of specialties — are organically 
interdependent. Universal truth must be arrived at by 
a process of division of labor. Each must locate his 
point in the sphere of knowledge and point out the 
curvature. 

Thus the course of study is formed between the two 
poles of universal extent and universal content. The 
primary pupil views the world in its universal extent by 
means of superficial and limited content ; the university 
student views the world in its universal content as found 
in limited extent. The child not being able to reach a 
single unifying principle, not even anything less than a 
multiplicity of unifying principles, must leave its objects 
isolated, or in a multiplicity of groups. Even in the 
latter case it is unconscious unification ; so that practically 
the world is a world of individuals. The university 
student seeks in limited extent a single principle which is 
the unity of the whole ; and thus grasps the universe in 
each object and is relieved from the necessity of seizing it 
in detail. 

It thus appears, as we should expect, that the universal 
law of method controls, not only the concrete act of teach- 
ing, but the whole course of instruction. The course of 
instruction is nothing but the universal law written large. 
This law, therefore, ought to solve the many problems 
arising in relation to the school curriculum, as the follow- 
ing:— 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 261 

The problem of concentration. — The theory of " concen- 
tration," from which so much is now promised, as usually 
taught and practiced, is but the wavering image of the 
universal law of method. True concentration is not the 
strained and mechanical bringing together of diverse 
subject-matter into the same recitation, but fixing the 
attention on all the relations of the given subject, and 
thus drawing into the movement the other subjects required 
for the mastery of the one under consideration. In the 
true unifying process, emphasis must be given to the 
content and not to the extent of subject-matter; whereas, 
superficial concentration emphasizes the diversity of matter 
which may be disposed of during a given period. In 
teaching a plant, the teacher must not say to himself, 
"Now I must bring into the discussion geometry, literature, 
theology, etc." ; but rather, "Now I must press the pupil's 
attention close to the relations which constitute the plant." 
If this should involve the facts and laws of geometric 
forms, let it be so; if this should reveal the infinite life, 
appealing as a poem to the sense of the beautiful, it must 
be well ; if this should manifest infinite wisdom and super- 
natural power, theology has found its way into the move- 
ment without awkward circumlocution to make a place for 
it. If the thing be taught in the only way it can truly be 
taught, whatever subjects are needed will inevitably be 
drawn into the process. 

The problem of enriching the course of study. — Enriching 
the elementary course of instruction, recently discussed so 
much, especially by the Committee of Ten, is only a ques- 



262 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

tion of obedience to the universal law of learning. As 
already illustrated in the discussion of the law, it would 
bring the elements of the so-called higher branches, 
such as geometry, general history, literature, botany and 
astronomy, into the very beginning of the course ; while it 
would postpone, and thereby give place to the preceding, 
the more abstruse phases of the so-called lower subjects. 
There is a phase of astronomy more elementary — in terms 
of the law less general — than a phase of arithmetic ; and 
it would enrich the course to have astronomy brought 
down in the place of that phase of arithmetic which can 
make no appeal to the pupil because too abstract and 
general for his concrete way of thinking. What the soul 
of the pupil needs for sustenance at a given time must be 
administered unto it, irrespective of tradition or of the 
logical symmetry of the subject. The course of study is 
too often considered as an objective arrangement of real 
things; whereas it is but the successive transformations 
throughout which the pupil passes in his progress towards 
self-realization. No external fixed something must be set 
over against the pupil's pulsating and plastic life. To 
have in the course of study eight years of arithmetic, two 
of algebra, and one of geometry ; and four years of gram- 
mar, two of rhetoric, and one of literature may satisfy the 
lover of objective system, but such is forbidden by the sub- 
jective course in the pupil's development. The law of the 
pupil's learning demands that he have geometry, literature 
and science on his entrance into school. By nature's 
method he has made a respectable beginning in these before 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 263 

entering school ; and no valid argument can be made for 
stopping his education simply because he is sent to school. 

The nine conferences of experts, organized by the Com- 
mittee of Ten to report on the first twelve years of the 
course of instruction, unanimously expressed a " desire to 
have the elements of their subjects taught earlier than 
they now are." For instance, " The Conference on Physics, 
Chemistry, and Astronomy urge that nature studies should 
constitute an important part of the elementary school 
course from the very beginning." And other Conferences 
report in the same spirit. 

This unanimity is reached by university men and special- 
ists in the subjects on which the report is made ; and 
hence it is made from interest in the subject. The kinder- 
gartner, at the other extreme of the course, whose specialty 
is the child's development, had reached the same conclusion 
long before there was a Committee of Ten. The best ele- 
mentary schools have been doing, under the pressure of the 
child's collective interests, just what those who occupy 
higher eminence in the subjects of study are now recom- 
mending. Hence, what is called enriching the course of 
study is only one of the many phases of the true law under 
discussion thrown to the surface where it may be easily 
discerned. 

The problem of the correlation of studies. — Correlation of 
studies has reference to the organic relation of lines of 
thought running through the course, while enriching the 
course has reference to the unfolding of single lines of 
thought. This can have no other explanation than that 



264 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

given under the universal law of learning, and it will be 
found amply illustrated in the discussion of the law. The 
living world is made up of interrelated facts and forces, 
and, in bringing the pupil into unity with that world, his 
mental relations must correspond to the world which he 
thinks. And if the pupil press each topic, which he is con- 
sidering, continuously out into its universal relations, he 
will necessarily fuse together all lines of investigation. 
We need not trouble ourselves about correlating studies ; 
they will correlate themselves when they are truly taught. 
If the geography of the Southern states be pressed out 
into its wealth of relations — pressing the universal into 
the individual — it will necessarily cross over into the 
Civil War; and if the history of the Civil War be properly 
considered, the geography of the Southern states must 
furnish some of the essential relations. And if at this 
stage of history study the geography work has not prepared 
the way for the needed relation ; or if at this stage of 
geography study the history work has not prepared the 
way for the needed geographical relation, the two subjects 
are not properly correlated. The needed relations in push- 
ing a subject out towards its universal meaning determine 
what subjects must be pursued parallel, and what phases 
of each subject are needed at a given stage of advancement 
in any other subject. Correlation, then, is putting such 
subjects side by side at a given time in the course as will 
help to bring to view the universal relations involved in 
the study of any one of them. What these mutually help- 
ful studies are, and what phases must come together in 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 265 

time, can be ascertained only by noting the ever-widening 
relations of each subject studied, and estimating the extent 
to which it penetrates every other. 

The problem of educational values. — This topic assumes 
that subjects have different educational values, either in 
kind or degree, or both. At one time it was supposed that 
Greek, Latin, and mathematics had the highest and equal 
worth among subjects. Scientists have recently made a 
healthful protest, claiming for their subject equal educa- 
tive power ; and along with this, history and literature 
have been admitted to equal rank with the others. And 
then came the generalization that all subjects have equal 
educational value ; that the chief matter is the method of 
study ; that one is as disciplinary and enlightening as the 
other, if taught as thoroughly and in the same spirit. 
President Baker, speaking with reference to the report of 
the Committee of Ten, of which he was a member, says : 
" I cannot endorse expressions that appear to sanction that 
the choice of subjects in secondary schools may be a matter 
of comparative indifference. . . . All such statements are 
based upon the theory that, for the purposes of general 
education, one study is as good as another, — a theory 
which appears to me to ignore Philosophy, Psychology and 
Science of Education. It is a theory which makes educa- 
tion formal, and does not consider the nature and value of 
the content. . . . The relation between the subjective 
power and the objective — or subjective — knowledge is 
inseparable and vital. On any other theory for general 
education, we might well consider the study of Egyptian 



266 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

hieroglyphics as valuable as that of physics, and Choctaw 
as important as Latin." He further adds that, " If rightly 
understood, the majority of the committee rejected the 
theory of equivalence of studies for general education." 

The assumption of equivalence may hold for practical 
purposes among the few great trunk lines of thought. 
Who cares to debate the relative value of mathematics 
and science, science and language, or language and history ! 
The difficulty arises when we descend into details of sub- 
ordinate subjects and phases of subjects. In the details of 
school work, what to select and with what prominence to 
treat the point when selected, are most trying difficulties. 
The difficulty increases as the square of the distance from 
the organic centers of the world's thought to the trivial 
matter selected for a given recitation. 

All this is a question of educational values, and must be 
determined by the law of bringing the pupil into unity 
with the world about him. A subject has value in propor- 
tion to its universality. Washington's fit of anger towards 
his officer has little value when compared to his Farewell 
Address, because it lacks universal content. The study of 
French has more value than the study of Canadian French, 
because wider relations appear to the pupil and a freer 
outlook disclosed. To decide between the value of the 
study of mathematics and natural science requires a 
decision as to their universality and the largeness of life 
possible to the student through each of the studies. 
Whether a student devote his life to the study of the 
ganglionic centers of a leech or to the ganglionic centers of 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 267 

Greek life — its politics, philosophy, and literature — is a 
question as to which reveals to him most fully his own 
higher destiny. Since the pupil is to find his true self in 
the thought and spirit of the world about him, whatever 
subject reflects in his consciousness the widest realm of 
that thought and spirit must have for him the greatest 
value. 

The problem of morals in the public school. — There has 
always been a feeling that moral instruction belongs to 
the school course ; but how to organize it in with other 
subjects has given the teacher no little concern. This 
difficulty arises from overlooking the fact that all good 
teaching is essentially ethical, together with the erroneous 
conception that man's moral nature is only one side of his 
life — a vertical or cross section, or something of that sort 
— instead of the entire length, breadth, and depth of it ; 
the very grain and texture of his being. Morality is not 
something added to man ; it is the man 5 and so morals is 
not a part of the course ; it is the course. True moral 
teaching seeks to affect conduct indirectly by the general 
elevation of life. Whatever brings out the features of 
the soul, develops fully and harmoniously its powers and 
faculties, directs the aspiring self to the highest claims of 
manhood, frees and stimulates the ethical passion among 
the forces of man's nature, reveals to the individual 
the beauty and worth of character, and inspires the 
soul with a "passion for truth and righteousness that 
shall press towards absolute satisfaction," is moral 
teaching. 



268 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

With this view of the question it is easy to see how 
instruction in morals may find a place in the course of 
study ; or to see that it matters little if it have no 
place; for the teacher who tones all his work to the 
moral key can afford to refuse it space on the program. 

If the question should yet remain, how teach a subject 
so as to give it moral force ? the answer is, teach it ; 
universalize it; and this universalizes the soul in its 
intellectual, emotional, and volitional activities. An ethical 
will is one that chooses universal ends, rather than special 
and private ones. Patriotism is the power to choose the 
good of the country against personal desires; and philan- 
thropy is yet wider in its reach, embracing humanity. 
Nothing is more directly and effectively ethical than 
giving to the pupil's isolated individuality conscious rela- 
tion to the universe about him; and this is done by 
universalizing the subject-matter with which he deals. 
To reach the innermost constitution of an object and find 
the self in it, is the true secret of organizing ethical power. 
One cannot touch his other self in the object, as urged 
under the law of method, without feeling the "ethical 
nudge," and being strengthened for higher activities of life. 

Since man's ethical nature is not a department but the 
tone and attitude of his whole life, ethical training cannot 
be restricted to exercising the will alone. It is ethical 
training when the intellect is required to form accurate 
judgments, to bound ideas definitely, to surround facts 
and take their bearings, to see the other and the opposite 
of things, to grasp diversity of facts into unity of system. 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 269 

Charity and liberality depend on training to see all sides 
of a question ; and humility comes from a habit of being 
led by truth against first impressions and preconceived 
notions. Power of abstract thought and of complex judg- 
ment are absolutely essential to ethical action, since such 
power is required to adjust acts to remote and universal 
ends. Truth-telling requires as its basis the power to 
adjust the mind accurately to realities. Intellectual train- 
ing is organically related to character and conduct. 

In previous discussions it was frequently pointed out 
that every object studied has an emotional value ; that an 
object has not been grasped in all its relations till the 
emotions have appropriated it. What is known as pure 
intellectual activity, when healthful and adequate to its 
object, is accompanied by a glow of feeling. If the teacher 
should select the Pythagorean proposition for the purpose 
of cultivating the intellect, in doing this very thing well, 
he will hear somewhere in the process a clapping of hands 
in the joy of demonstrative activity. In this the proposi- 
tion makes its contribution to life and character. Capacity 
for intellectual delight is moral capacity. 

Especially potent for good is the poetic elevation of 
spirit arising when the object is viewed as a type of ideal 
truth. How man is lifted over the mud-puddles of life by 
his power to give a poetic interpretation to common things ! 
How dull, flat, and insipid goes life weighed down too 
close to the dirt, and what desperate surges of relief 
through dangerous indulgences ! What relief when the 
imagination is trained to see beauty and goodness from the 



270 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

least suggestion of dull and customary objects ! The bee 
carries honey away from the flower in Hawthorne's door- 
yard ; and he thinks of throwing a benefaction on the 
passing breeze to sweeten the sourness and bitterness of 
the world. The pupil must thus be trained to see every- 
thing in its beautiful and beneficent aspect, "to sweeten 
the sourness and bitterness " of his after life. Such forms 
of thought ought to be no exceptional activity in the 
pupil's work ; but, as so often pointed out in the course of 
previous discussions, it is one of the relations under which 
every object should be viewed. And thus in the main 
line of school work, and not as a side issue, all the 
emotional chords are attuned to beautiful harmonies, 
which make life rich and full and joyous — which makes 
for righteousness. 

The problem of religion in the public school. — Like the 
question of morals, the difficulty is that of organizing 
religious instruction into the course of study; but with 
religion there is the more stubborn question as to whether 
it should have any place in the course. This may be 
largely a question of the use of terms. Those who claim 
that religion should be taught in the public school may 
agree with those who claim that it should not, in the sense 
in which they mean that it should not ; and those who 
claim that it should not be taught may agree with those 
who claim that it should, in the sense in which they claim 
that it should. 

The difficulty seems to arise in a failure to discern 
fundamental likenesses where differences are striking. 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 271 

The church and railroads seem to have nothing in common, 
yet both look to the amelioration and salvation of man. 
Teaching a Sunday-school class and pegging shoes are not 
considered in the same line of activities, yet the spiritual 
elevation of the race is their common end. The pick and 
the shovel join with the sermon in eradicating sin and 
establishing the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men. 
Education and religion must have some common, vital 
principle, in spite of the fact that they have been set over 
against each other as if they belonged to different cate- 
gories, if not antagonistic. This sharp line of distinction 
often blinds to the best truth in both, leaving education 
without purity, holiness, faith, noble purpose, a striving 
for perfect knowledge and harmony with God — with 
nothing but the sharp intellect either with or without 
character ; and religion without beauty, fullness, and vigor 
of life, large-minded, generous manhood — with nothing 
but dogma and creed and formal piety. We hear that 
education is a doubtful factor, having to do with the 
intellect, and giving reckless power unless restrained by 
the religious heart ; that it is an affair of this world to 
satisfy hunger and pride, while religion is for eternity, 
satisfying and saving the soul. 

Eeligion is not a branch, a department, or anything that 
can be added to education ; but rather vitalized, purified, 
and quickened blood. It is the attachment and devotion 
of every faculty of the soul to truth, beauty, and virtue. 
It includes man's whole being, — his tone and temper of 
life, purity of heart; his striving to know and feel the 



272 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

true, the permanent, the eternal source of all things ; his 
tendency of life upward toward truth and God. Whatever 
else you may desire to include, so much are essential 
elements. Neither is education a branch, a department, 
or anything that can be added to religion. Education is 
to fix the tendency of life upward ; to stimulate a striving 
for perfection of character; to enlighten and strengthen 
the native tendencies of the soul ; to intensify and purify, 
broaden and deepen, refine and enrich life by all things 
true, beautiful, and good ; and to establish the current of 
being in the safe channel of spiritual activity. Education 
is not power unqualified, but power regulated and directed 
to righteous ends. The work of education is fatally 
defective which gives faculties power without the power 
of right direction ; strength of life without right tendency 
of life. The man who is untruthful or dishonest, of mean 
prejudices or revengeful temper, though versed in sciences 
and arts, is not educated. The uncharitable, though he 
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, though he 
have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries 
and all knowledge, lacks one element of that rounded 
fullness of character which is the aim of education. 
Though man walk up and down the dusty highways of 
knowledge, yet if he does not experience that self-surrender 
to truth, that " consciousness of living under high and 
beautiful laws," which destroys the last bit of egotism in 
him, he has missed the best education has to give. Man's 
attainment in departments of knowledge is something, but 
what he attains to in simple manhood is everything. JSTot 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 273 

ten questions of knowledge, but, ultimately, ten questions 
of life : — 

1. Is he gentle, kind, and charitable ? 2. Is lie candid, 
simple, and without guile ? 3. Is he sincere, pure, and 
noble ? 4. Is he genial, just, and generous ? 5. Is he 
rich and full in his inner world of experience ? 6. Has 
he true moral self-reliance, self-restraint, self-control, self- 
direction ? 7. Has he breadth of outlook over the physical 
and moral worlds ? 8. Does his life flow on beautifully, 
joyously, towards the divine source of all things ? 9. Is 
he delicately responsive to the music of creation ? 10. Is 
he in harmony with the divine order of the universe ? 

Any statement of education in terms of mere knowledge 
and intellectual shrewdness, omitting the ultimate test in 
the spiritual tone of life — its breadth and depth ; its full- 
ness, richness, and power ; its faith, hope, and aspirations ; 
its responsive pulsations to truth, beauty, and virtue — is 
false in theory and unsafe in practice. In this view educa- 
tion must develop and strengthen whatever elements of 
character are essential to the highest Christian virtue. 

Hence religion is already in the course; not as one of 
the subjects of instruction, but as a pervasive force through 
all subjects. If the public school cannot add religion to 
its course, there is nothing to prevent the teacher from 
spiritualizing education into religion. The fundamental 
tone running through the entire discussion of method is 
that of unity of the pupil with the spiritual, conscious life 
back of the phenomena of the world. In this the pupil 
lives and moves and has his being. The universal truth of 



274 THE TEACHING PROCESS. 

the world's religions, present and past, is this : " We look 
not at the things which are seen, bnt at the things which 
are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal; 
bnt the things which are not seen are eternal." Eeligion 
is the feeling of unity with the abiding life and spirit back 
of variable and vanishing phenomena. All philosophy- 
seeks to explain this unity ; poetry idealizes it in feeling ; 
and education is, by systematic plan and purpose, to 
develop the individual into a capacity for living in con- 
scious unity with the sustaining power of the universe. 
Prom this highest mountain peak of observation, religion 
and education, so sharply contrasted in the valley below, 
are seen as one and inseparable. When teacher and 
preacher rise to inspired utterance they necessarily clothe 
education in conception and terms of religion. Archbishop 
Farrar, from the side of the church, states it eloquently 
thus : — 

" The true end of education, of whatever kind, we must 
set steadily before us. 'There are some who wish to know 
that they may know ; this is a base curiosity. There are 
some who wish to know that they may be known ; this 
is base vanity. There are some who wish to sell their 
knowledge ; this is base covetousness. There are some 
who wish to know that they may edify ; this is charity : 
and those who wish to be edified, and this is heavenly pru- 
dence.' The object of education is that we may learn to see 
and know God here and glorify Him in heaven hereafter." 

Professor Laurie, from the side of the school, rises to 
the same level in the following : — 



THE PROCESS AS A COMPLEX WHOLE. 275 

" Man can rise above mere world-citizenship, and become 
a citizen of a city not made with, hands. The divine in 
him claims fellowship and kindred with God. He can 
rise to the contemplation of ideas and regard them face 
to face. When man attains his fnll statnre and to com- 
munion with ideas, he raises his head above the vaporous 
clouds of earth and breathes an ampler ether, a diviner 
air. He now begins to see the cosmic order as truly a 
spiritual order, and returning to the ordinary life of the 
citizen, he descends from his Sinai not to despise the mean 
things of the daily life, but now rather to see the God of 
the mountain-top in them, and to illuminate all with a 
light that comes from within. He no longer sees with the 
eye of sense. For him nature is now bathed in that light 
that never was on sea or shore. The glory of setting suns, 
with all its splendor, is now to him only a dwelling-place 
for the universal spirit ; the infinite variety of nature only 
the garment we know Him by. The palpitating thought 
which is all, and in all, now finds in the spirit of man a 
responsive pulse. It is to sow the germs of this life of the 
spirit that the university exists ; to give food, nutrition r 

this kind, — to supply the spiritual manna which v " 

xis- 
never fail us in the wilderness-wandering of earthly 

tence, as each morning we rise to a new clay." 

And thus from the mountain-top the conflict/ 11 

tional thought disappear, and the complex diy/ sl ^ 

teaching process is seen to move in unity &** harm y 

the supreme good in human life. / 



IB~DEX. 



"A Day in June," a reading 
lesson, 178. 

Academic studies, 80 to 85. 

Aim in teaching, 36 to 41 ; found 
in the nature of life, 42 ; true 
aim, 71. 

Aims, diversity of, 36 ; unifica- 
tion of, 63. 

Amazon River, as fixed, 154 ; as 
changing, 156 ; lesson on, 157 
to 162. 

Analogy between physical and 
spiritual life, 64 ; as a process 
of induction, 226 to 228. 

A Posteriori Arguments, 240 to 
245. 

Application of the teaching pro- 
cess, 153 to 182. 

Applying the General notion, 214. 

A Priori Arguments, 235 to 239. 

Argument, movements in, 216 to 
,244 ; the processes in, 220. 

Argumentation, 184; teaching by, 
219. 

Argyle, Duke of, quotation from, 
90. 

Arithmetic, effect if knowledge of 
be taken away, 61 ; practical 
knowledge of, 65 to 70. 

Attributes, individual, univer- 
sal, 109 ; thinking individual 



through, 120 ; of relation, 122 ; 
of properties, 128 to 137 ; man- 
ner of viewing, 133 to 137. 

Basis, choice of, 139 ; the law in 

choosing, 140. 
Battle of Lexington, a lesson on, 

169. 
Beautiful, nature of, 123 to 125. 
Biological sciences, rise of in the 

course of instruction, 243. 
Boy, plural of, a lesson on, 24 

to 29. 
Branches in the common school, 



Carlyle, quotation from, 89. 

Cause and effect, as attributes, 
126 ; relation of in argumenta- 
tion, 231. 

Change, conception of involves 
purpose, 147 ; time, 148 ; cause 
and effect, 148 ; whole and part, 
149 ; likeness and difference, 
151. 

Choice in life, 48. 

Civilization, definition of, 57. 

Class unity, 111. 

Common-school, purpose of, 63 ; 
fundamental branches in, 62 to 
72. 



278 



INDEX. 



Comparison and Contrast, 143 ; 
value of, 143 ; laws of, 144. 

Concentration, the problem of, 
261. 

Content, how found, 185. 

Correlation of studies, the prob- 
lem of, 263. 

Course of study, graded, 106 ; 
formulation of, 246 to 260. 

" Daybreak," a poem, as a work 
of art, 204. 

Deduction, 216 ; proof in, 220. 

Definition, 186; definition of, 187; 
steps in, 188 ; illustration of, 
189 ; laws of, 191 ; educational 
value of, 192 ; time for making, 
193. • 

Description, teaching by, 118. 

Dewey, John W. , quotation from, 
183. 

Difference, found in neither ob- 
ject, 88. 

Digestion, a lesson on, 168. 

Diversity of aims, 36. 

Division, process in exposition, 
186 ; compared with definition, 
195 ; steps and laws in the 
process, 195 ; educational value 
of, 197 ; moving in unity with 
definition, 198 ; illustrated by 
parts of speech, 199. 

Drawing, reason for its study, 62. 

Dynamical attributes, 130. 

Education, philosophy of, v ; 

vital question, 37; practical, 40. 
Educational value of subjects, the 

problem of, 265. 
Enriching the course of study, 

the problem of, 261. 



"Excelsior," analysis of, 209 to 

213. 
Exhaustive teaching, 138. 
Exposition, the process of, 184. 
Extension, attribute of, 128. 
Extent, how found, 185. 

Eactor, objective, 247; subjective, 
251. 

Factors in the process, 79. 

Fallacies, how arise, 218; in a 
priori arguments, 237 ; teacher's 
responsibility, 239 ; in a poste- 
riori arguments, 243 ; responsi- 
bility of teacher, 244. 

Fallacy, law for testing, 223. 

Farrar, archbishop, quotation 
from, 274. 

Fine art, 206. 

Forming the general notion, 185. 

Freedom, physical, 58 ; spiritual, 
59. 

Fundamental branches, 61. 

General notion, forming, 185 ; 

applying, 214. 
Geography, advantages of, 62 ; 

practically taught, 65 ; a lesson 

from, 157. 
Good, the nature of, 123. 
Grammar, illustrations from, 189, 

199. 
Ground of unity, the ultimate, 

93. 

Harris, Dr., quotation from, 104. 

Heart, a lesson on, 162. 

Hickok's mental science, a quota- 
tion from, 134. 

History, purpose of study, 62 ; a 
lesson from, 169. 



INDEX. 



279 



Idea, general, how formed, 184. 

Ideal truth, exposition of, 203. 

Identification, 217 ; two phases, 
226 ; the process of, 230. 

Illustration of the teaching proc- 
ess, the pyramid, 11 ; the word 
boys, 24. 

Individual, two ways of thinking, 
116 ; two classes, 117 ; think- 
ing through attributes, 120 ; by 
means of parts, 138 ; thinking 
one by means of another, 143 ; 
as changing, 145 ; an outline 
for thinking, 152. 

Induction, 217 ; proof through, 
225. 

Instruction, course of, 246. 

Interdependencies, civilized world 
a net-work of, 58 ; industrial 
world, 65. 

Interest, the most pervasive idea, 
94. 

Judgment, definition of, 216. 

Key to reading and literature, 207. 
Knowledge, nature of, 79. 

Laurie, quotation from, 275. 

Law of life, the universal, 48 ; 
of teaching, 73 ; of unity, 97. 

Laws of partition, 139 to 141. 

Lesson planning, gain in, 29 to 35. 

Life, aim found in nature of, 42 
to 63 ; physical, 42 ; spiritual, 
44; law of, 48; analogy between 
physical and spiritual, 64 ; con- 
flicts exhibited in literature, 51 ; 
typical battles of, 53 ; an ex- 
ternal process, 55. 

Likeness and difference, 151. 



Literature, discussion of, 204 to 

214. 
Longfellow, selections from, 204, 

208. 
Lowell, selections from, 178. 

Mathematics, rise of in course of 
study, 247. 

Matter-of-fact truth, 204. 

Method, definition of, 74 ; a men- 
tal action, 79 ; universal law of, 
102; two points in, 108; in defi- 
nition, 188. 

Morals in the public school, prob- 
lem of, 267. 

Narration, teaching by, 108. 
Notion, general, 185. 

Object, view of, guidance in teach- 
ing, 137. 

Objective factor, 247. 

Organic unity, 111. 

Outline of thinking the incli^ 
vidual, 152 ; of a pencil, 173 ; 
of the course of study, 250. 

Partition, 138; law of, 139 to 143 ; 

hard to obey, 149. 
Parts of speech, illustration, 199. 
Pencil, an outline of, 173. 
Perceptive activity, 76 to 79. 
Philosophy, problem in, 79. 
Physical science, rise of in course 

of instruction, 247. 
Physiology, reason for studying, 

62 ; illustrations from — a heart, 

162 ; digestion, 168. 
Practical subjects, 65 to 71. 
Process of teaching, why two, 

113. 



280 



INDEX. 



Professional studies, 80. 

Properties, primary, 128 ; second- 
ary, 130. 

Psychology, educational, 32. 

Psychological sciences, rise of in 
the course of instruction, 248. 

Purpose of common school, 65. 

Pyramid, lesson on, 11 to 23. 

Question the premise, 221 ; 

teacher's responsibility, 222. 
Questions for final examination, 

273. 

Reading, its benefit, 67 ; lessons 
in, 176, 178, 208. 

Relation, attributes of, 122 ; pur- 
pose and means, 122 ; cause 
and effect, 126 ; time and place, 
127. 

Relation of content to extent, 186. 

Religion in the public school, 
problem of, 270. 

Resistance, attribute of, 129. 

Rousseau, quotation from, 39. 

" Skipper Ireson's Ride," a read- 
ing lesson, 176. 

Statical attributes, 128. 

Statico-dynamical attributes, 130. 

Subjects, cultural, practical, 64 ; 
in the course of instruction, 225. 

Syllogism, 217 ; terms in, 223. 

Teaching, definition of, 9 ; pur- 
pose of, 54; fundamental defect 
in, 105 ; by description, 118 ; 
by narration, 118 ; exhaustive, 
138. 



Teaching Process, general nature 
of, 1 ; inferences from, 4 ; par- 
ticular nature, 5 ; conscious 
factors of, 7 ; organic elements 
of, 8 ; diagram of, 10 ; illustra- 
tions of, 12 to 24 ; two organic 
phases of, 75 ; two factors in, 
79 ; specific phases, 109 ; as a 
complex whole, 246. 

Thinking the individual, through 
its attributes, 120 ; by means of 
parts, 138 ; law of, 139 ; one 
individual by means of another, 
143 to 145 ; the individual as 
changing, 145 ; the general, 183 
to 245 ; the content of a class, 
187 ; the extent of a class, 194. 

Thorough thinking, 138. 

True, nature of, 123 to 126. 

Truth, practical, 104 ; ideal, 203. 

Unity, ultimate ground of i 73 ; 

ultimate law of, 97 ; organic, 

111 ; class, 111. 
Universal, law, 73; attributes, 109. 
University, purpose of, 65. 

Value, of educational process, 19 ; 
of thinking an object systemat- 
ically, 146. 

Viewing attributes, manner of, 
133. 

Whittier, selection from, 176. 

World — external, internal — how 
thought, 87 ; subjective and 
objective, diagram of, 103. 

Zoology, 80. 



